Anteaglonium menghaiense T.Y. Du, K.D. Hyde & Tibpromma, in Dong et al., Fungal Diversity (2025)

Index Fungorum number: IF 856853; MycoBank number: MB 856853; Facesoffungi number: FoF 17071; Fig. 1

Etymology – named after the city, Menghai, where this species was first collected.

Holotype – GMB-W1119

Saprobic on dead branches of an unidentified wood. Sexual morph: Hysterothecia 300–1200 µm long × 200–450 µm high × 220–500 µm wide (x̄ = 750 × 380 × 395 µm, n = 10), gregarious, linear, superficial, black, subglobose to oblong, carbonaceous, smooth or slightly striate laterally, without longitudinal slit, occurring on a black thin crust. Peridium 50–100 µm wide (x̄ = 75 µm, n = 10), brittle with age, longitudinally striated at the margins, thickened, comprising brown cells of textura angularis to textura globulosa. Hamathecium comprising 1–1.5 µm wide, numerous, branched, septate, trabeculate pseudoparaphyses, embedded in a gelatinous matrix, above the asci. Asci 55–70 × 4.5–7.5 µm (x̄ = 60 × 6 µm, n = 30), 8-spored, bitunicate, cylindric-clavate, apically rounded, with a short, club-shaped pedicel. Ascospores (6–)8–11 × 2–5 µm (x̄ = 9 × 3.5 µm, n = 30), obliquely to irregularly uniseriate to biseriate, fusiform, tapering towards the ends, the upper cell is slightly wider than the lower cell, straight, hyaline, 1-septate, constricted at septum, smooth-walled, guttulate. Asexual morph: undetermined.

Culture characteristics – ascospores germinated on PDA within 24 h at 28 °C and germ tubes produced from both ends. Colonies on PDA reached 3–4 cm diam. after four weeks at 28 °C. Colonies obverse: circular or irregular, white-cream to orange, abundant mycelium, entire margin with thin mycelium layer, umbonate elevation; reverse: the innermost and outermost circles are light orange, with a
brown to dark brown ring in the middle.

Material examined – China, Yunnan Province, Xishuangbanna Prefecture, Menghai City, Daluo Town, Damanlu Village, on dead branches of an unidentified wood, 9 February 2024, T.Y. Du, MHD03 (GMB-W1119, holotype); ex-type culture, GMBCC1109; other living culture, GMBCC1112.

GenBank accession numbers – GMBCC1109 = ITS: PQ699968, LSU: PQ699966, SSU: PQ699970, tef1-a: PQ682577, rpb2: PQ682579; GMBCC1112 = ITS: PQ699969, LSU: PQ699967, SSU: PQ699971, tef1-a: PQ682578, rpb2: PQ682580.

Notes – in the phylogenetic analysis, Anteaglonium menghaiense forms a distinct branch and is closely related to A. abbreviatum (ANM925a and GKM129) (Fig. 2). Morphologically, A. menghaiense differs from A. abbreviatum in having subglobose to oblong, linear ascomata and peridium comprising brown cells of textura angularis to textura globulosa, while A. abbreviatum (ANM 37) has semi-linear ascomata, with different types of peridium walled (Schweinitz 1832; Hyde et al. 2013). The nucleotide comparison of the LSU and tef1-a between A. menghaiense (GMBCC1109) and A. abbreviatum (ANM925a) shows that there is a 1.2% nucleotide difference (9/738 bp, without gaps), and a 4.8% nucleotide difference (34/714 bp, without gaps), respectively. In addition, there is also a 0.9% nucleotide difference (7/738 bp, without gaps) in LSU and a 4.8% nucleotide difference (34/714 bp, without gaps) in tef1-a between A. menghaiense and another strain of A. abbreviatum (GKM129). This suggests a significant divergence in their tef1-a region. Therefore, we identify A. menghaiense as a novel species based on phylogenetic analyses and morphological differences.

Figure 1 – Anteaglonium menghaiense (GMB-W1119, holotype). a, b Appearance of ascomata on the substrate. c Section through an ascoma. d Peridium. e Trabeculate pseudoparaphyses stained with cotton blue. f–i Asci. j–l Ascospores (j stained with cotton blue). m A germinated ascospore. n Colony on PDA from above and below after 4 weeks. Scale bars: c = 100 µm, d = 20 µm, e = 10 µm, f–i = 50 µm, j–m = 5 µm.

Figure 2 – Maximum likelihood consensus tree inferred from the combined LSU, ITS, rpb2, SSU and tef1-a multiple sequence alignments. Bootstrap support values for maximum likelihood (ML, first value) equal to or greater than 80% and Bayesian posterior probabilities from MCMC analyses (BYPP, second value) equal to or greater than 0.95 are given near the nodes. The scale bar indicates expected changes per site. The tree is rooted to Hysterium pulicare (ANM 1455). Ex type strains are indicated with “T”. The newly generated sequences are indicated in red.