Menisporopsis pandanicola Tibpromma & K.D. Hyde, in Tibpromma et al., Fungal Diversity 93: 128 (2018)

Index Fungorum number: IF 554522; MycoBank number: MB 554522; Facesoffungi number: FoF 04533; Figs. 1, 2

Saprobic on dead stems of Dypsis lutescens. Sexual morph: undetermined. Asexual morph: Hyphomycetous, scattered, brown to dark. Setae 390–420 × 8–9 µm, central, solitary, erect, straight or slightly flexuous, unbranched, dark brown, septate, smooth, thick-walled, brown to dark brown at the base, pale brown towards the apex. Conidiophores 75–80 × 15–20 µm, closely compacted into synnemata, brown, straight or slightly flexuous, pale to medium brown, septate, smooth- and thick-walled. Conidiogenous cells 20–28 × 3–3.7 µm, polyphialidic, terminal, integrated, lageniform at apex, erect, straight, smooth. Conidia 16–18 × 2.2–3.8 µm, aggregated into a slimy mass, hyaline, aseptate, smooth- and thin-walled, lunate, curved, conical at both ends, guttulate, with (1–)2 setula of the different length at each end, sparsely three at one side, setulae situated on different planes, 3–11.5 µm long.

Culture characteristics – colonies on PDA reaching 25 mm diam. at 25 °C after 6 days, hypophyllous, effuse thick, inconspicuous, mycelium partly immersed and partly superficial, composed of pale brown, septate hyphae, raised on surface media.

Material examined – CHINA, Yunnan Province, Xishuangbanna City, on dead inflorescences of Dypsis lutescens (Arecaceae), 6 February 2023, Y.R. Xiong & L. Lu, DZY SWK- 4 (MHZU 24–0473, new host record).

GenBank – MHZU 24-0473a: PQ764965 (ITS), PQ764971 (LSU); MHZU 24-0473b: PQ764966 (ITS), PQ764972 (LSU).

Note – Menisporopsis pandanicola was first introduced on dead leaf of Pandanus sp. in Hong Kong, China by Tibpromma & K.D. Hyde (Tibpromma et al. 2018). Subsequently, it also be reported on dead leaves of unidentified tree from Guangdong, Guangxi and Yunnan, China (Wu and Diao 2022). The phylogenetic results showed that our isolates clustered with M. pandanicola with 100% ML and 1.00 BIPP bootstrap support (Fig. 2). Morphologically, our collection fit well with M. pandanicola description (Tibpromma et al. 2018; Wu and Diao 2022). In addition, our collection supplement morphology characteristics about conidia setulae sparsely have three at one side and situated on different planes. Based on phylogenetic analysis and morphology, we introduce our isolation as new host record of M. pandanicola on Dypsis lutescens.

Figure 1 – Menisporopsis pandanicola (MHZU 24–0473). a, b Colonies on natural substrate. c Setae with conidiophores, conidiogenous cells and conidia. d Conidiogenous cells with conidia. e–h Conidia. i Germinated conidium. j Colony on PDA (front and below). Scale bars: c = 100 µm, d, e = 20 µm, f–i = 10 µm.

Figure 2 – Maximum Likelihood consensus tree inferred from the combined ITS and LSU sequence alignments. Bootstrap support values for Maximum Likelihood (ML, first value) equal to or greater than 75% and Bayesian posterior probabilities from MCMC analyses (BYPP, second value) equal to or greater than 0.95 are given above the nodes. The scale bar indicates expected changes per site. The tree is rooted to Thozetella bambusicola (SC025) and T. hunanensis (053378). Ex type strains are indicated with “T”. The newly generated sequences are indicated in red.