Lecanicilliumcauligalbarum sp. nov. (Cordycipitaceae, Hypocreales), a novel fungus isolated from a stemborer in the Yao Ren National Forest Mountain Park, Guizhou.

Ye-Ming Zhou,Jun-Rui Zhi,Wen-Bo Yue,Zhi-Yuan Zhang,Mao Ye,Xiao Zou

doi:10.3897/mycokeys.43.30203

Abstract

A new species of entomopathogenic fungi, Lecanicilliumcauligalbarum, was discovered from a survey of invertebrate-associated fungi in the Yao Ren National Forest Mountain Park in China. The synnemata of this species emerged from the corpse of a stemborer (Lepidoptera), which was hidden amongst pieces of wood on the forest floor. It differs from morphologically similar Lecanicillium species mainly in its short conidiogenous cells and ellipsoid to ovoid and aseptate conidia. Phylogenetic analysis of a combined data set comprising ITS, SSU, LSU, TEF, RPB1 and RPB2 sequence data supported the inclusion of L.cauligalbarum in the Lecanicillium genus and its recognition as a distinct species.

Highlights

The first sequence dataset consisted of 3793 bases, including inserted gaps (ITS: 506 bp; small subunit rDNA (SSU): 579 bp; large subunit rDNA (LSU): 490 bp; translation elongation factor 1α (TEF): 772 bp; RPB1: 561 bp; RPB2: 885 bp)
The second sequence dataset consisted of 2944 bases, including inserted gaps (ITS: 526 bp; SSU: 456 bp; LSU: 409 bp; TEF: 386 bp; RPB1: 500 bp; RPB2: 667 bp)
The first tree formed with almost all the Lecanicillium species and one Simplicillium species (Simplicillium lanosoniveum)

Summary

Introduction

Viegas incorporated the species in Verticillium Nees in 1939 (Gams and Zare 2001). Zare and Gams (2001) recircumscribed the genus following analyses of morphological data and sequence data for the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) rDNA region (which comprises the ITS1 spacer, 5.8S coding region and ITS2 spacer). All insect pathogens formerly included in Verticillium were reclassified in a newly established genus, Lecanicillium. Kepler et al (2017) revisited the taxonomic affinities of the Cordycipitaceae (Hypocreales) and proposed that Lecanicillium should be rejected because L. lecanii is included within the Akanthomyces clade and the name Akanthomyces Lebert has nomenclatural priority over Lecanicillium (Kepler et al 2017). The phylogenetic affinities of the majority of species in the original circumscription of Lecanicillium remain uncertain. Given that there remain unresolved phylogenetic and taxonomic matters concerning Lecanicillium, Huang et al (2018) and Crous et al (2018) chose to describe new taxa in Lecanicillium to avoid creating further confusion in the taxonomy (Crous et al 2018; Huang et al 2018)

Methods

Results

Conclusion