Neodendryphiella, a novel genus of the Dictyosporiaceae (Pleosporales).

Isabel Iturrieta-González,Dania García,Rafael F. Castañeda-Ruiz,Josep Guarro,Josepa Gené

doi:10.3897/mycokeys.37.27275

Abstract

In a survey of soil and herbivore dung microfungi in Mexico and Spain, several dendryphiella-like species were found. Phylogenetic analyses based on ITS and LSU sequences showed that these fungi belonged to the family Dictyosporiaceae (Pleosporales) and represent an undescribed monophyletic lineage distant from Dendryphiella. Therefore, the genus Neodendryphiella is proposed to accommodate three new species, N.mali, N.michoacanensis and N.tarraconensis. The novel genus shares morphological features with Dendryphiella such as differentiated conidiophores and polytretic integrated conidiogenous cells, that produce acropetal branched chains of conidia. Neodendryphiella differs in the absence of nodulose conidiophores bearing conidiogenous cells with pores surrounded by a thickened and darkened wall, typical features in the conidiogenous apparatus of Dendryphiella. In addition, the phylogenetic and morphological analysis of several reference strains of different Dendryphiella species, available for comparison, support the proposal of D.variabilissp. nov., which mainly differs from the other species of the genus by having conidia up to 7 septa and highlight that D.vinosa and D.infuscans are obscure species that require further taxonomic review.

Highlights

In an ongoing survey of asexual microfungi from soil and herbivore dung, several interesting specimens morphologically consistent with Dendryphiella were found from samples collected in Mexico and Spain
The present study proposes the genus Neodendryphiella based on the analysis of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) and LSU sequences, which represented an undescribed monophyletic lineage related but phylogenetically distant from the morphologically similar genus Dendryphiella
Both genera belong to the Dictyosporiaceae (Dothideomycetes) and share similar conidiophore morphology with polytretic conidiogenous cells forming usually septate conidia arranged in acropetal branched chains

Summary

Introduction

In an ongoing survey of asexual microfungi from soil and herbivore dung, several interesting specimens morphologically consistent with Dendryphiella were found from samples collected in Mexico and Spain. Previous phylogenetic studies, conducted mainly from sequence data of the 18S nrDNA (SSU), 28S nrDNA (LSU) and the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) nrDNA regions, showed that the marine species D. arenariae and D. salina were phylogenetically distant from the type D. vinosa and related to the Pleosporaceae (Gareth Jones et al 2008, Suetrong et al 2009). Both species were moved to the genus Paradendryphiella (Woudenberg et al 2013) and, more recently, D. vinosa was included in the family Dictyosporiaceae (Tanaka et al 2015, Boonmee et al 2016). With the exception of the first four mentioned, there is no ex-type culture of other species of this genus and only reference strains of D. vinosa and D. infuscans are available in public collections for comparison

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