Obovoideisporodochium Z. X. Zhang, J. W. Xia & X. G. Zhang, gen. nov.

MycoBank number: MB 841103; Index Fungorum number: IF 841103; Facesoffungi number: FoF;

Type species: Obovoideisporodochium lithocarpi Z. X. Zhang, J. W. Xia & X. G. Zhang

Etymology: Composed of “obovoideisporo-” (obovoid spores) and “-dochium” (referring to the conidioma, i.e. sporodochium).

Description: Living as endophyte in leaves and causing leaf spots. Asexual morph: mycelium consisting of septate, smooth and hyaline hyphae, thin-walled. Conidiomata sporodochial, appeared within 20 days or longer, formed on the agar surface, slimy, pale bluish-green, semi-submerged. Sporodochial conidiophores densely and irregularly branched, bearing apical whorls of 2–3 phial- ides; sporodochial phialides monophialidic, subulate to subcylindrical, smooth, thin-walled, tapering towards apex, swelling at the base. Conidia formed singly, obovoid to ellipsoid, smooth, thin-walled, apex obtuse, base with inconspicuous to conspicuous hilum. Sexual morph: unknown.

Notes: – Obovoideisporodochium was introduced by Zhang et al. (2021) based on morphology and phylogeny analysis. The members of this genus can be found as endophytes on leaves and pathogens causing leaf spots. The phylogenetic trees show that this genus forms a basal clade to Racheliella, Oblongisporothyrium and Paratubakia, with separate lineage and high bootstrap support. The genus is monotypic and is typified by Obovoideisporodochium lithocarpi. The asexual morph has sporodochial conidiomata, subulate to subcylindrical conidiophores with hyaline, obovoid to ellipsoid conidia, while the sexual morph is unknown.

Figure 1. Phylogram of Tubakiaceae, based on the concatenated ITS, LSU and rpb2 sequence alignment. The BI and ML bootstrap support values above 0.74 and 74% are shown at the first and second position, respectively. The tree is rooted to Greeneria uvicola (culture FI12007) and ex-type cultures are indicated in bold face. Strains from the current study are in red. Some branches were shortened for layout purposes – these are indicated by two diagonal lines with the number of times a branch was shortened indicated next to the lines.

Figure 2. Phylogram of Tubakiaceae, based on the concatenated ITS, tef1 and tub2 sequence alignment. The BI and ML bootstrap support values above 0.74 and 74% are shown at the first and second position, respectively. The tree is rooted to Greeneria uvicola (culture FI12007) and ex-type cultures are indicated in bold face. Strains from the current study are in red. Some branches were shortened for layout purposes – these are indicated by two diagonal lines with the number of times a branch was shortened indicated next to the lines.