Musicillium elettariae Giraldo López & Crous, Stud. Mycol. 92: 267 (2018)
Index Fungorum number: IF 828065; MycoBank number: MB 828065; Facesoffungi number: FoF 15207; Figs. 1, 2
On twig of Smilax elegantissima. Colonies superficial, numerous, black at the base, upper white. Conidiophores 115–446 µm long, arising from immersed hyphae, smooth, septate, erect, simple or verticillate towards the apex, pale to dark brown, hyaline at the tip, bearing 2–3 whorls of 2–5 phialides, lateral branches sometimes. Phialides 17–34 µm long × 1–2.7 µm diam (x̄ = 23 × 2.1 µm, L/W = 10.9, n = 20), hyaline, terminal, lateral. Conidiogenous cells enteroblastic, monophialidic, with minute collarette and periclinal thickening visible. Conidia 3.0–7.7 × 1.4–2.6 (x̄ = 5.2 × 2.1 µm, L/W = 2.4, n = 30), cylindrical, hyaline, aseptate, round ends. Moniliform hyphae 6–10 µm, globose to subglobose, verruculose, thick-walled, brown, commonly aggregating into microsclerotium-like structures.
Culture characteristics – mycelium reaching 27 mm diam within 14 days on PDA, slightly flat, raised at the center, woolly, margin entire, mouse gray at the center, white margin, reverse dark mouse gray, aerial mycelium white.
Material examined – CHINA, Yunnan Province, Kunming City, Panlong District, 25°8’15.65″ N 102°47’13.70″ E, altitude 1918 m, on twig of Smilax elegantissima, 15 December 2021, Hongde Yang, KUNCC23-14,819.
GenBank – KUNCC23-14,819: OR922577 (ITS), OR922583 (SSU), OR922581 (LSU), PQ453869 (tub2), PQ453871 (tef1).
Known hosts – Carex pendula, Elettaria cardomomum, Musa acuminata (Giraldo and Crous 2019), Smilax elegantissima (this study).
Notes – Our collection was morphologically and phylogenetically fit with the holotype of M. elettariae (CBS 252.80). Its sexual morph was reported recently, as saprobic on dead leaves of Musa sp., and was recognized by superficial, perithecial ascomata with setae, ascospores cylindrical with acute ends with one septum (Samarakoon et al. 2024). Musicillium elettariae has been found distribution in Iran, Rwanda, Thailand (Giraldo and Crous 2019). In this study, M. elettariae was recorded for the first time from China on Smilax elegantissima.
Figure 1 – Musicillium elettariae (KUNCC23-14,819). a Host. b Appearance of colonies on host. c Conidiophores from host. d Conidiophores from PDA. e, f Moniliform hyphae. g Phialides. h Conidia. i, j Colony on PDA. Scale bars: c = 50 µm, d = 20 µm, e = 50 µm, f = 20 µm, g = 5 µm, h = 10 µm.
Figure 2 – Phylogram generated from the Maximum Likelihood analysis based on the combined LSU, ITS, tef1 and tub2 sequence data of the genus Musicillium. The tree topology of the Maximum Likelihood analysis is similar to the Bayesian analysis. The best RAxML tree is presented. Bootstrap support values for ML greater than 50% and Bayesian posterior probabilities greater than 0.90 are given near nodes, respectively. The tree was rooted with Paramusicillium asperulatum (CBS 120158). Ex-type strains are bold. The newly generated sequences are indicated in yellow.