Curvularia alcornii Manamgoda, L. Cai & K. D. Hyde, Sydowia 64(2): 259 (2012)
Index Fungorum number: IF 800665; MycoBank number: MB 800665; Facesoffungi number: FoF 10679; Fig. 1
Saprobic on dried leaf of Panicum virgatum. On CMA Hyphae 4–5 μm, septate, branched. Conidiophores up to 241 μm long, micronematous to macronematous, pale brown to dark brown, simple or branched, septate, flexuous, highly geniculate. Conidiogenous cells (8–)9–17(–19)×(4–)5–6 μm (x̄ =13×5 μm, n=10), hyaline to pale brown, smooth–walled, terminal or intercalary, monotretic to polytretic. Conidia (18–)20–26(–31)×(7–)8–1 0(–11)μm (x̄ =23×9 μm, n=30) apical and basal cells hyaline or pale brown, matured conidia brown, straight, rarely curved, inequilateral ellipsoidal or clavate, dark brown septa, 3–4-distoseptate, enlarged middle cells; hila 1–2 μm distinctly protuberant, darkened. Sexual morph: Not observed. Culture characteristics: Colonies on PDA reaching 57 mm in 7 days at 25 °C, slightly convex with entire margin, brown centre, sparse aerial mycelium becoming brown to grey towards the edge, reverse black to dark brown, concentric. Colonies on CMA reaching 60 mm in 7 days at 25 °C, flat with entire margin, pale brown to dark brown, moderate aerial mycelium becoming dark brown to black towards the edge, reverse dark brown, concentric. Colonies on MEA reaching 67 mm in 7 days at 25 °C, flat with entire margin, dark green, sparse aerial mycelium becoming olivaceous green towards the edge, reverse black, concentric.
Material examined – Sri Lanka, Anuradhapura District, Thuruwila, N 8° 14′ 50.53859″, E 80° 25′ 9.24013″, on dried leaf of Panicum virgatum L. (Poaceae), 13 June 2019, D.S. Manamgoda, USJ-H-075, living culture USJCC-0088.
Hosts – Panicum spp., Pennisetum clandestinum, Oryza spp. and Zea mays (Manamgoda et al. 2012a, b; Khemmuk et al. 2016)
Distribution – Australia and Thailand (Farr and Rossman 2022)
GenBank numbers – MZ948821 (ITS), MZ971267 (gadph), MZ971253 (tef1)
Notes – According to the phylogenetic result, isolate USJCC-0088 is identified as Curvularia alcornii. This taxon was originally described in Manamgoda et al. (2012a), as a saprobe on a leaf sample of Zea mays collected in Thailand (holotype MFLU 12-0397). In this study, the fresh isolate was identified as a saprobe on a dead leaf of Panicum virgatum (Fig. 2). To our knowledge, this is a new record from Sri Lanka and a new fungus-host association.
Figure 1 – Curvularia alcornii (USJCC–0088, new host and geographical record) a Seven-day old colony on PDA b Seven-day old colony on CMA c Seven-day old colony on MEA d, e Conidia attached to conidiophores f, g Conidia. Scale bars: d–g=10 μm
Figure 2 –Phylogram generated from parsimony analysis based on combined ITS, gadph and tef1 sequence data of Curvularia. Bootstrap support values of MP and ML≥50% and BYPP≥0.95 are indicated above the nodes. The ex-types are in bold; the new records are highlighted in greenish-blue. The tree is rooted with Bipolaris maydis (CBS137271/C5)