Hogelandia lambearum Hern.-Restr., sp. nov.

MycoBank number: MB 838708; Index Fungorum number: IF 838708; Facesoffungi number: FoF; Fig. 31.

Etymology: Name includes the initials of the collectors Lara Alssema and Meike van Berkel, students from Het Hogeland College (Warffum, the Netherlands). This sample was collected during a Citizen Science project of the Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute.

Vegetative hyphae hyaline, septate, smooth, 1.5–4 µm. Conidiophores micronematous, mostly reduced to conidiogenous cells. Conidiogenous cells monoblastic, subcylindrical, smooth, hyaline, 5–10.5 × 2–3 µm. Secession rhexolytic. Conidia hyaline, smooth, thick-walled, globose to subglobose, sometimes in short chains, 8–14 µm diam, base with a cylindrical to cuneiform cell.

Culture characteristics: After 1 wk at 25 °C on OA reaching 52 mm diam, zonate, cottony, white, with moderate aerial mycelium and glabrous zones at the centre, margin entire, regular. On MEA reaching 53 mm diam, zonate, white, margin regular, reverse ochreous.

Typus: Netherlands, Groningen Province, Warffum, Het Hogeland College, from soil, 6 Jun. 2019, L. Alssema & M. van Berkel, NL19_027 (holotype CBS H-24733, culture ex-type CBS 147626 = NL19_27007).

Notes: Hogelandia is phylogenetically related to Ascodesmis, Eleutherascus and Cephaliophora in Pezizomycetes (Fig. 3). Species of these genera are also found in soil and dung samples (Guarro et al. 2012). Members of Ascodesmis, Eleutherascus and Cephaliophora are all described as sexual morphs, except for E. tuberculata that was described with a sporothrix- or calcarisporium-like asexual morph, characterised by erect and branched conidiophores with polyblastic conidiogenous cells that produce ellipsoidal conidia, 8.5–12.5 × 5–7.5 µm (Samson & Luiten 1975). Hogelandia is represented only by the asexual morph, characterised by micronematous conidiophores, monoblastic conidiogenous cells and subglobose conidia. Attempts to induce the sexual morph in vitro were unsuccessful. Based on a megablast search of NCBI’s GenBank nucleotide database, the closest hits using the ITS sequence had highest similarity to Cephaliophora sp. (strain TD4, GenBank KY814682.1; Identities = 476/508 (94 %), five gaps (0 %)), Cephaliophora tropica (strain GN-HA-1-3, GenBank MG554311.1; Identities = 340/369 (92%), six gaps (1 %)), and Cephaliophora tropica (strain JB-NW-1-1, GenBank MG554299.1; Identities = 333/365 (91 %), five gaps (1%)). Closest hits using the LSU sequence are Ascodesmis nigricans (strain CBS 163.74, GenBank MH872582.1; Identities = 810/825 (98%), no gaps), Ascodesmis microscopica (strain CBS 275.80, GenBank MH873032.1; Identities = 809/825 (98 %), no gaps), and Ascodesmis sphaerospora (strain CBS 125.61, GenBank MH869550.1; Identities= 809/825 (98 %), no gaps) – also see Fig. 3.

Author: M. Hernández-Restrepo

Fig. 3. Consensus phylogram (50 % majority rule) resulting from a Bayesian analysis of the Pezizomycetes LSU nucleotide alignment. Bayesian posterior probabilities (PP) > 0.79 are shown at the nodes and the scale bar represents the expected changes per site. Thickened branches represent PP = 1. Families and the order Pezizales are indicated with coloured blocks to the right of the tree. GenBank accession (superscript) and / or culture collection / voucher numbers are indicated for all species. The tree was rooted to Candida broadrunensis (culture CBS 11838, GenBank KY106372.1) and the species treated in this study for which LSU sequence data were available are indicated in bold face.

Fig. 31. Hogelandia lambearum (CBS 147626). A–B. Colony on MEA. C. Colony on OA. D–E. Mycelium and conidia. F–H. Conidiogenous cells and conidia. I–L. Conidia. Scale bars D–E, L = 10 µm. L applies to F–L.