Abstract
The new entomopathogenic fungus Ophiocordyceps pingbianensis, collected from Southeast China, was described by mitogenomic, morphological, and phylogenetic evidence. The systematic position of O. pingbianensis was determined by phylogenetic analyses based on six nuclear gene (ITS, tef1-α, nrSSU, nrLSU, rpb1 and rpb2) and 14 mitochondrial protein-coding gene (PCGs) (cox1, cox2, cox3, atp6, atp8, atp9, cob, nad1, nad2, nad3, nad4, nad5, nad6 and nad4L) data. Phylogenetic analyses reveal that O. pingbianensis was belonged to the Hirsutella nodulosa clade in the genus Ophiocordyceps of Ophiocordycipiaceae. This fungus exhibits distinctive characteristics which differed from other related Ophiocordyceps species with slender and geminate stromata, monophialidic conidiogenous cells with an inflated awl-shaped base, a twisty and warty phialide neck and a fusiform or oval conidia, as well as being found on a tiger beetle of Coleoptera buried in moss at the cave. The complete mitochondrial genome of O. pingbianensis was a circular DNA molecule 80,359 bp in length, containing 15 PCGs, 24 open reading frames genes (ORFs), 25 transfer RNA genes (tRNAs) and 27 introns. Ophiocordyceps pingbianensis, containing 27 introns, has the second largest mitogenome in Ophiocordycipiaceae and was next to O. sinensis. To our knowledge, this is the first report of the mitogenome from a new entomopathogenic fungus, and thus provides an important foundation for future studies on taxonomy, genetics and evolutionary biology of Ophiocordycipiaceae.
Highlights
Ophiocordyceps Petch was belonged to Ophiocordycipitaceae of Hypocreales [1], erected initially by Petch in 1924
For the Maximum likelihood (ML) and Bayesian Inference (BI) trees estimated for the five nuclear genes, the new species was closely related to H. liboensis X
For the ML and BI trees estimated for the internal transcribed spacer region (ITS) sequences, there was no significant different in topology between the five-gene and ITS phylogenetic trees
Summary
Ophiocordyceps Petch was belonged to Ophiocordycipitaceae of Hypocreales [1], erected initially by Petch in 1924. In 1931, Petch defined O. blattae Petch as a type species [2]. In this genus, the most famous species O. sinensis ((Berk.) G.H. Sung, J.M. Sung, Hywel-Jones and Spatafora) is mainly distributed in the high altitudes of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau [3]. Given the morphological characteristics of asci from several species lacking pronounced apical hemispheric caps and ascospores without being disarticulated into part-spores, Ophiocordyceps acts as a subgenus of Cordyceps Fr. sensu lato [4,5,6].
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