Apiospora elliptica Senan., sp. nov.

Index Fungorum number: IF 900456; MycoBank number: MB 900456; Facesoffungi number: FoF 14208; Fig. 1

Etymology – based on the ellipsoidal shape of conidia.

Saprobic on dead stem of unidentified plant. Sexual morph: Undetermined. Asexual morph: Conidial masses scattered on substrate as irregular patches. Conidiophores reduced to conidiogenous cells. Conidiogenous cells 15–25×2–3 μm (x=22×2.3 μm, n=20), phialidic, cylindrical, hyaline, smooth-walled. Conidia 10–15×7–10 μm (x = 12 × 8 μm, n = 20), fusiform, dark brown, smooth-walled, with a pale equatorial slit.

Culture characteristics – Colonies on PDA reaching 5 cm diam. after 5 days in dark at 25 °C, circular, flat, entire, white, less aerial mycelia, reverse off-white.

Material examined – China, Guangdong Province, Guangzhou City, Danxia Mountain, dead wood of unidentified plant, 20 June 2021, I.C. Senanayake, S2 4 (MHZU 22-0074, holotype), ex-type cultures ZHKUCC 22-0132, ZHKUCC 22-0145.

GenBank numbers – ITS: OR164905, OR164906; LSU: OR164952, OR164953; tef1-α: OR166284; β-tubulin: OR166323, OR166324.

Notes – The sequence data of ITS, LSU, β-tubulin and tef1-α of our collection (MHZU 22-0074) gives species in Apiospora as the closest matches with NCBI. The phylogenetic analysis (Fig. 2) showed that our isolate is genetically close, but genetically distinct from Apiospora agaves and another new Apiospora collection (MHZU 22-0073) obtained in this study forming a clade with ML/BI=95%/1.00 statistical support. Our collection different from Apiospora agaves (MHZU 22-0075) by absence of conidiogenous mother cells and fusiform conidia. The other new collection (MHZU 22-0073) differs by having smooth-walled, fusiform conidia. Therefore, we introduce our collection as a new species, Apiospora elliptica.

Figure 1 – Apiospora elliptica (MHZU 22-0074, holotype). a Examined material. b Surface view of colony. c Reverse view of colony. d–f Conidia attached to conidiogenous cells. g, h Conidia. Scale bars: d–h=15 µm

Figure 2 – Phylogram generated from maximum likelihood analysis based on combined ITS, LSU, β-tubulin and tef1-α sequence data of 190 taxa, which comprised 2694 characters (ITS=565, LSU=862, β-tubulin=444, tef1-α=823). The best scoring RAxML tree with a final likelihood value of − 20,488.974413 is presented. The matrix had 917 distinct alignment patterns, with 25.57% of undetermined characters or gaps. Estimated base frequencies were as follows: A=0.229550, C=0.267919, G=0.242735, T=0.259795; substitution rates: AC=1.447018, AG=2.737139, AT=1.353872, CG=1.119023, CT=4.157776, GT=1.0; gamma distribution shape parameter α=0.215582. Bootstrap support for maximum likelihood (ML) equal to or greater than 50% and clade credibility values greater than 0.90 (the rounding of values to 2 decimal proportions) from Bayesian inference analysis are labelled at each node. Ex-type strains are in bold, while the new isolate is indicated in blue bold. The tree is rooted to Sporocadus trimorphus (CBS 114203)

Figure 2 – (continued)

Figure 2 – (continued)