Lophiotrema neoarundinariae Y. Zhang ter, Kaz. Tanaka & K.D. Hyde [as ‘neoarundinaria’], Stud. Mycol. 64: 97 (2009)

Index Fungorum number: IF 836880; MycoBank number: MB 836880; Facesoffungi number: FoF 09949; Fig. 1

≡ Didymosphaeria arundinariae Ellis & Everh., N. Amer. Pyren. (Newfield): 732 (1892)

Saprobic on dead twigs of Prunus sp. Sexual morph: Ascomata 200–300 µm high, 150–200 μm diam. (x̅= 248 × 180.5 μm, n = 10), solitary or gregarious, immersed to erumpent through host tissue, subglobose or obpyriform, brown to dark brown, ostiolate. Ostiole 50–80 µm long, 40–60 μm diam., carbonaceous, mostly central, minute papilla, with crest-like opening, filled with hyaline periphysate. Peridium 10–15 μm wide at the base, 12–20 μm wide at sides, composed of flattened, angular, pseudoparenchymatous cells, outer layer, dark brown, thick-walled cells, inner layer, hyaline with thin-walled cells. Hamathecium composed of numerous, 1.5–2 µm wide, filamentous, septate, branched, cellular pseudoparaphyses. Asci 80–120×8–9 µm (x̅=98×8 µm, n=20), 8-spored, bitunicate, fissitunicate, cylindrical, subsessile to short pedicellate, apically rounded, with a minute ocular chamber. Ascospores 20–30×3.5–4.5 µm (x̅=23×4 µm, n=30), overlapping biseriate, fusiform, hyaline, straight or slightly curved, onecelled when young, becoming 3-septate at maturation, the upper cell is longer than the lower cell, constricted at the septa, narrower towards both end cells, smooth-walled, with guttules. Asexual morph Undetermined.

Culture characteristics – Ascospores germinating on PDA within 24 h and germ tubes arising from both end cells. Colonies on PDA, reaching 4 cm diam. after 4 weeks of incubation at room temperature, initially white becoming dirty white to creamy, flattened, with a smooth edge, reverse dark brown, with pale grey margin.

Material examined – CHINA, Yunnan, Kunming, Xiaokong Mountain, 25.171311° N 102.703690° E, on dead twigs of Prunus sp., 21 December 2019, CG Ren, KM007 HKAS 115779, new host record), living culture (KUMUCC 21-0037).

GenBank numbers – ITS = MZ493302, LSU=MZ493316, SSU=MZ493288, RPB2=MZ508420, TEF1-α=MZ508411.

Notes – Zhang et al. (2009) introduced Lophiotrema neoarundinariae comb. nov. to accommodate taxon which was previously described as Didymosphaeria arundinariae. Schoch et al. (2009a), Tanaka et al. (2009), Hirayama and Tanaka (2011) and Hashimoto et al. (2016, 2017) provided additional DNA based sequence data for this species. In this study, a newly collected taxon is identified as L. neoarundinariae based on multigene phylogenetic analysis and reported as a new host record on Prunus sp. from Yunnan, China (Figs. 1 and 2).

Figure 1 – Lophiotrema neoarundinariae (HKAS 115779, new record). a, b Appearance of ascomata on host surface. c Longitudinal section of an ascoma. d Section of peridium and papillate. e Pseudoparaphyses. f–i Asci. j–o Ascospores. p, q Culture characteristic on PDA (p=from above, q=from below). Scale bars: c=100 μm, d, h–i=20 μm, e=5 μm, j–o=10 μm, p, q=10 mm

Figure 2 – Phylogram generated from maximum likelihood analysis based on combined SSU, LSU, ITS, TEF1-α and RPB2 sequence data to indicate the newly generated strains in Lophiotremataceae. Sixty strains are included in the combined analyses which comprise a total of 4357 characters. Murilentithecium clematidis (MFLUCC 14-0561 and MFLUCC 14-0562) is selected as the outgroup taxon. The best RAxML tree with a final likelihood value of − 24211.323363 is presented. RAxML analysis yielded 1272 distinct alignment patterns and 6.17% of undetermined characters or gaps. Estimated base frequencies were as follows: A=0.246394, C=0.256619, G=0.267068, T=0.229919, with substitution rates AC=1.576531, AG=4.38051, AT=1.49611, CG=1.339907, CT=10.502267, GT=1.000000; gamma distribution shape parameter alpha=0.450773. Bootstrap support values for maximum likelihood (MLBS, left) equal to or greater than 70% is given above the nodes. Ex-type strains are in bold and newly generated sequences are in blue