Anthosulcatispora sichuanensis Yan P. Chen & Maharachch., in Cao et al., Fungal Diversity 132: 451 (2025)

Index Fungorum number: IF 851952; MycoBank number: MB 851952; Facesoffungi number: FoF 15499; Figs. 1, 2

Etymology – refers to the province “Sichuan”, where the holotype was collected.

Holotype – HUEST 23.0585.

Sexual morph: Ascomata 521–735 µm high, 457–614 µm width (x̄ = 625 × 522 µm, n = 10); immersed on the branches; dark brown to black; inner chamber empty with hyaline ascus adhered to the inner wall; multilayer wall composed of brown, irregular elliptical cells. Ostiole open in mature ascomata for releasing ascospores but invisible in imma ture ascomata. Asci 87.8–161.5 µm long, 5.4–7.2 µm width (x̄ = 127.6 × 6.4 µm, n = 30); 8-spored; hyaline. Ascospores 13.8–17.6 µm long, 4.3–6.1 µm width (x̄ = 15.8 × 5.2 µm, n = 40); hyaline; 2-septate with 3 divisions; uniform in shape and smooth with rounded ends. Paraphyses hyaline, interspersed among the asci. Asexual morph: undetermined.

Culture characteristics – Conidia germinated on PDA within 12 h at 25 °C in darkness. Colonies grayish-tan color overall with a more intense brown at the centers, velvety especially towards the edges with slightly raised and more condensed central region on the front side; dark brown to black in the center and fading to a lighter brown at the edges on the reverse side.

Material examined – CHINA, Sichuan Province, Chengdu City, Pengzhou City, Huilonggou, 31°17’N, 103°47’E, 2300 m asl, from decaying stems of an unidentified woody plant, 28 Jul 2021, Yanpeng Chen & Yaobin Guo, HLG13.2 (HUEST 23.0585, holotype; UESTCC 23.0583, ex-type) and HLG13.3.

GenBank – UESTCC 23.0583: PP262634 (SSU), PP262632 (ITS), PP262633 (LSU), PP234626 (tef1), PP234625 (rpb2).

Notes – The phylogenetic tree reveals that strain UESTCC 23.0583 clusters closely with the ex-type strains Anthosul catispora subglobosa (MFLUCC 17–2065) and A. brunnea (MFLU 18–1393), with strong support (100/1.00/100) (Fig. 2). Online BLASTn analyses of barcode sequences from strain UESTCC 23.0583 demonstrate sequence identities of 87% (447/514, 24 gaps), 98% (800/813, 2 gaps), 93% (695/756, no gap), and 94% (630/669, 1 gap) with A. subglobosa MFLUCC 17–2065, using ITS, LSU, rpb2, and tef1 sequences, respectively. Morphologically, A. subglobosa is characterized by its asexual morphology, with aseptate conidia (Phukhamsakda et al. 2020). In contrast, collection HUEST 23.0585 exhibits sexual morphology with septate ascospores. A. brunnea is distinguished by its sexual morphology, featuring brown and 1-septate ascospores (Phookamsak et al. 2019), which differs from HUEST 23.0585, with hyaline and 2-septate ascospores. Considering the BLASTn results, phylogenetic analysis, and morphology, we propose introducing our collection as a new species within the genus Anthosulcatispora, designated as A. sichuanensis.

Figure 1 – Anthosulcatispora sichuanensis (HUEST 23.0585, holotype). a Natural substrate. b Close-up of ascomata. c, d Vertical section of ascomata. e Wall of an ascoma. f–i Ascus. j Paraphysis. k Ascospores. l, m Cultures on PDA after 4 weeks (front and back view). Scale bar: c, d = 100 µm, e = 20 µm, f–k = 10 µm.

Figure 2 – Maximum Likelihood tree based on combined SSU, ITS, LSU, tef1 and rpb2 sequences. UFBoot values greater than 95% are shown around nodes. New species is shown in red. “T” refers to an ex-type strain.