Aplosporella artocarpi Trakun., L. Lombard & Crous, in Trakunyingcharoen et al., Persoonia 34: 91 (2014)
Index Fungorum number: IF 810167; MycoBank number; MB 810167; Facesoffungi number: FoF 10747, Fig. 1
Saprobic on dead stems of Chromolaena odorata. Sexual morph: Not observed. Asexual morph: Conidiomata (280–) 300–350 × 370–450 (–500) µm (x̄=300 × 415 µm, n = 5), solitary, immersed to semi-immersed with 2–3 locules, globose to subglobose, black. Ostiole absent. Peridium 45–50 (–60) µm wide, multi-layered, comprised of dark brown cells of Textura angularis. Hamanthecium 3–5 µm wide, numerous, hyaline, aseptate, paraphyses. Conidiophores reduced to conidiogenous cells. Conidiogenous cells 1–2 µm wide, holoblastic, cylindrical, hyaline. Conidia 15–20×5–10 µm (x̄=17×7 µm, n=15), aseptate, rough-walled, granular appearance, hyaline to dark brown, ellipsoidal, without appendages. Culture characteristics: Conidia germinating on PDA within 24 h, reaching 85 mm after 7 days at room temperature, concentric, flat, irregular, rough surface, greenish-grey.
Material examined – Thailand, Chiang Rai Province, Doi Pui, on the dead stems of Chromolaena odorata (L.) (Asteraceae), 10 July 2020, Zin Hnin Htet, SW23 (MFLU 22–0108), living culture MFLUCC 22-0010.
Known hosts and distribution – On asymptomatic twig of Artocarpus heterophyllus (Moraceae) in Chiang Mai Province, Thailand (Trakunyingcharoen et al. 2015); on asymptomatic leaves of Stoechospermum marginatum (Dictyotaceae) and Caulerpa taxifolia (Caulerpaceae) in India (Sahoo et al. 2021); on dead branches of Mangifera indica (Anacardiaceae) in China (Yang et al. 2022); on dead stems of Chromolaena odorata (Asteraceae) in Chiang Rai Province, Thailand (this study)
GenBank numbers – ON834371(LSU), ON823183(ITS)
Notes – Aplosporella artocarpi was introduced by Trakunyingcharoen et al. (2015). The species has morphologically similar to other Aplosporella species such as A. hesperidica, A. prunicola, and A. thailandica in having dark-brown, multilocular conidiomata with aseptate, hyaline to dark-brown conidia (Damm et al. 2007; Ekanayaka et al. 2016; Dissanayake et al. 2021a, b). In our phylogenetic analysis, Aplosporella artocarpi (MFLUCC 22-0010) is closely related to Aplosporella artocarpi (CPC 22,791) with ML=70%, BYPP=0.54. (Fig. 2). According to BLASTn result, the closest match for the LSU sequence was Aplosporella artocarpi (CPC 22791) with 99.83% similarity. The closest match for the ITS sequence was Aplosporella prunicola (CBS 121167) with 97.81% similarity. Furthermore, comparisons of ITS region between our taxon, Aplosporella artocarpi (MFLUCC 22-0010) and ex-type strain of A. artocarpi (CPC 22791) show one base pair difference (0.18%) across 531 nucleotides. Aplosporella species can be found on a wide range of hosts such as Anacardiaceae, Asteraceae, Caulerpaceae, Cupressaceae, Dictyotaceae, Fabaceae, Gingkoaceae, Moraceae, Myrtaceae, Proteaceae, and Rosaceae (Du et al. 2017; Mapook et al. 2020; Sahoo et al. 2021; Yang et al. 2021). We collected Aplosporella artocarpi (MFLU 22-0108) from Thailand and reported here as a new host record associated with Chromolaena odorata.
Figure 1 – Aplosporella artocarpi (MFLU 22–0108, new host record). a, b Appearance of conidiomata on host substrate. c Section through conidoma. d Peridium. e Pseudoparaphyses. f Conidia on the conidiogenous cells. g-j Conidia. k Sporulation l–m Culture on PDA from surface and reverse. Scale bars. a=1000 µm, b=500 µm, c=100 µm, d=30 µm, e=5 µm, f, l, m=20 µm, g,h,I,j,k=10 µm
Figure 2 – Phylogram generated from maximum likelihood analysis based on combined LSU, ITS, and tef1 sequence data for the Aplosporella. The combined dataset consists of 19 taxa from Aplosporella and our taxon, Aplosporella artocarpi (MFLUCC 22–0010). Melanops tulasnei (CBS 116805 and CBS 116806) are used as outgroup. The topology of the maximum likelihood analysis is similar to Bayesian analysis. Bootstrap support value for ML≥60% and BYPP≥0.95 are given above the branches. The ex-type strains are bold. The newly generated sequence is indicated in bold and red