Beltraniella jiangxiensis P. Razaghi, M. Raza & L. Cai 

Index Fungorum number: IF 900338; Mycobank number: MB 90338; Facesoffungi number: FoF 12674; Fig. 1

Etymology – The name refers to the location it was collected.

Holotype – HMAS 352097.

Setae numerous, erect, arising from radially lobed basal cells, straight or flexuous, unbranched, single or in small groups, thick-walled, coarsely verrucose, olivaceous brown, paler towards apex, 81–304 μm long, 5–8.5 μm wide, tapering to a pointed apex, up to 16-septate, arising from a dark brown, swollen, radially lobed basal cell, 11– 22 μm in diameter. Conidiophores macronematous, short, simple or branched at apical regions, 3–6 septate, reduced to conidiogenous cells, verrucose, thin-walled, swollen at the base, subhyaline to pale olivaceous, arising from basal cells of setae or from separate, 36–65 × 4–7 µm. Conidiogenous cells polyblastic, integrated, determinate, terminal, geniculate, denticulate, cylindrical, oblong, hyaline to subhyaline, smooth, 9–19×4–6 μm (av.=12.62±3.27×4.68±0.59 μm). Separating cells obclavate, thin-walled, smooth, hyaline to subhyaline, 1-denticulate at each end, 8–11×3.5–5 μm (av. =9.91±0.89×3.95±0.47 μm). Conidia arise directly from conidiogenous cells or from separating cells, aggregated, acrogenous, simple, dry, straight, sometimes verrucose, thin-walled turbinate to pyriform, rostrate to pointed at proximal end, truncate at distal end, hyaline to subhyaline without a hyaline transverse band, 20–24×5.5–7.5 μm (av.=22.12± 1.25×6.55±0.64 μm). Sexual morph: Undetermined.

Culture characteristics – Colonies on PDA raised with a concave edge, with undulate edge, dense, colony cream from above and reverse, velutinous, sterile, reaching 55–57 mm diam after 7 days at 25 °C; on SNA dome-shaped, with rhizoid edge, white, reaching 53–60 mm diam after 7 days at 25 °C.

Material examined – China, Jiangxi, Ganzhou, Fengshan, on Camellia sinensis, Aug. 2013, Y. Zhang (HMAS 352097, holotype), ex-type living culture CGMCC 3.23486 = LC3449.

Other specimens examined – China, Jiangxi Province, Ganzhou, Fengshan, on Camellia sinensis, August 2013, Y. Zhang (HMAS 352097, holotype), ex-holotype living culture, CGMCC 3.23486 = LC3449. China, Jiangxi Province, Ganzhou, on leaves of Camellia sinensis, August 2013, Y. Zhang, living culture, LC15868.

GeneBank numbers – CGMCC 3.23486: ITS=OP022178, LSU = OP022174; LC15868: ITS = OP022179, LSU=OP022175.

Notes – Two isolates of Beltraniella jiangxiensis formed a well-supported and distinct clade on the ML tree generated from ITS and LSU sequences (Fig. 2), closely related to B. pandanicola, B. portoricensis and B. fertilis. Morphologically, our novel species is distinguished from the most closely related species, B. pandanicola isolated from Pandanus sp. in Thailand (Tibpromma et al. 2018) by producing more septate (16 μm ×2–4 μm) and relatively longer setae (81–304 μm vs. 114–200 μm), longer conidiophores (36–65 μm vs. 20–42 µm) and longer conidiogenous cells (9–19 μm vs. 6–10 μm).

Figure 1 – Beltraniellajiangxiensis (HMAS 352097, holotype). a–d Upper and reverse views of cultures on PDA and SNA after 1 week of inoculation, respectively. e Conidiophores and setae on pine needle on SNA. f–j Setae, conidiophores and conidiogenous cells. k–m Conidiophores and conidiogenous cells. n Separating cells. o Conidia. Scale bars: 5 µm

Figure 2 – Phylogenetic tree generated from Maximum likelihood analysis (RAxML) based on combined ITS and LSU sequence data of Beltraniaceae. Fifty-three strains are included in the combined analyses which comprised 1373 characters (547 characters for ITS and 820 characters for LSU) after alignment. Anthostomella leucospermi (CBS 110126) was used as the outgroup taxon. The best scoring RAxML tree with a final likelihood value of -4929.358117 is presented. The matrix had 335 distinct alignment patterns, with 11.74% of undetermined characters or gaps. Estimated base frequencies were as follows: A=0.2705, C=0.2648, G=0.2173, T=0.2474; substitution rates: AC=0.6116, AG=3.9808, AT=1.0000, CG=0.6116, CT=1.9749, GT=1.0000; gamma distribution shape parameter α=0.4680. Bootstrap support values for ML equal to or greater than 50% are given above the nodes (left side). Bayesian posterior probabilities (BYPP) equal to or greater than 0.80 are given above the nodes (right side). Ex-type strains are in bold and newly generated sequences are in blue