Pochonia chlamydosporia (Goddard) Zare & W. Gams, in Gams & Zare, Nova Hedwigia 72(3–4), 334 (2001)
Basionym: Cordyceps chlamydosporia H.C. Evans in Zare et al., Nova Hedwigia 73(1–2), 51–86 (2001)
Index Fungorum number: IF 474783; Facesoffungi number: FoF 14272; Fig. 62
Hyphae hyaline, aseptate, smooth-surfaced, becoming course-surfaced when mature. Asexual morph: Conidiophores 12–30 × 1–1.5 μm (x̅ = 22 × 1 μm, n = 20), mononematous, micronematous, erect, straight or slightly curved, smooth-walled, unbranched terminal or intercalary. Phialides 3–7 × 1–4 μm (x̅ = 6 × 2.5 μm, n = 20), solitary on apices of conidiophores, ellipsoid to sub-cylindrical, bearing conidial chains at the apex. Conidia 2.5–5.5 × 1.5–4 μm (x̅ = 3 × 2 μm, n = 20), globose or subglobose to ovoid, smooth-walled, hyaline, aseptate. Sexual morph: Undetermined.
Culture characteristics – Colonies on PDA become 30 mm diam. after 14 days at 25 ℃, appearing in white, becoming yellow to deep-yellow, cottony, slightly raised when mature, entire margined, reverse yellowish brown at the center and whitish yellow at the rind.
Material examined – Thailand, Chiang Rai Province, 19°53’2″N, 100°5’37″E, 440 m, on forest soil, 7 January 2020, W.A.E. Yasanthika, living culture MFLUCC 23-0021.
GenBank accession numbers – ITS: OQ690713, LSU: OQ690716.
Known distribution (based on molecular data) – Canada, Germany, Japan and Thailand (Mensin et al. 2012, Nonaka et al. 2013, Mongkolsamrit et al. 2020, Jaihan et al. 2021, this study).
Known hosts (based on molecular data) – Nymph of Cicadidae and soil (Mensin et al. 2012, Nonaka et al. 2013, Kim et al. 2016, Mongkolsamrit et al. 2020, Jaihan et al. 2021), forest soil (this study).
Notes – Pochonia chlamydosporia has been identified as an association of four varieties, which were synonymized under P. chlamydosporia based on the latest classification (Nonaka et al. 2013, Species Fungorum 2023). This species has been subjected to revision in several studies and synonymized recently by Mongkolsamrit et al. (2020). Both sexual and asexual morphs are reported from this species, and the sexual morph is observed in the nymphs of Cicadidae in Thailand (Jaihan et al. 2021). This species is commonly found in soils and is a nematode parasite used as a biocontrol agent (Nonaka et al. 2013). Our collection (MFLUCC 23-0021) is clustered with other P. chlamydosporia with 68% maximum likelihood bootstrap support and 1.00 Bayesian posterior probability in the combined ITS and LSU phylogenetic tree (Fig. 61) and also agrees with Mongkolsamrit et al. (2020). Our isolate is morphologically similar to P. chlamydosporia (CBS 101244) in having globose or subglobose to ovoid, smooth-walled, hyaline, aseptate conidia produced on phialides (Nonaka et al. 2013). Based on both morphological characteristics (Fig. 62) and multigene phylogenetic analyses (Fig. 61), the current study reports the first collection of P. chlamydosporia from the forest soils in Thailand.
Fig. 1– Pochonia chlamydosporia (MFLUCC 23-0021, a new habitat record). a Colony from above (on the PDA). b Colony from below (on the PDA). c–e Hyphae. f Conidiogenesis on phialides. g, h Conidiophores. i–p Conidia. Scale bars: c = 20 μm, d, e, h–p = 10 μm, f = 5 μm.
Fig. 2– Phylogram generated from maximum likelihood analysis based on the combined ITS and LSU sequence data of Clavicipitaceae taxa. Thirty-four strains are included in the combined analyses which comprised 1594 characters (539 characters for ITS and 1055 characters for LSU) after aligned. Tree topology of the maximum likelihood analysis is similar to the Bayesian analysis. The best RAxML tree with a final likelihood value of -5725.389280 is presented. The matrix had 476 distinct alignment patterns, with 33.06% undetermined characters or gaps. Evolutionary models applied for ITS and LSU are SYM+I+G and GTR+I+G models, respectively. Bootstrap support values for ML equal to or greater than 60% and Bayesian posterior probabilities equal to or greater than 0.95 are given near nodes, respectively. The tree is rooted with Purpureocillium takamizusanense (NHJ 3582) and P. lavendulum (FMR 10376). Ex-type strains are in bold. The newly generated sequences are indicated in yellow.