Abstract
During 2017, the Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute (WI) and the Utrecht University Museum launched a Citizen Science project. Dutch school children collected soil samples from gardens at different localities in the Netherlands, and submitted them to the WI where they were analysed in order to find new fungal species. Around 3000 fungal isolates, including filamentous fungi and yeasts, were cultured, preserved and submitted for DNA sequencing. Through analysis of the ITS and LSU sequences from the obtained isolates, several plectosphaerellaceous fungi were identified for further study. Based on morphological characters and the combined analysis of the ITS and TEF1-α sequences, some isolates were found to represent new species in the genera Phialoparvum, i.e. Ph. maaspleinense and Ph. rietveltiae, and Plectosphaerella, i.e. Pl. hanneae and Pl. verschoorii, which are described and illustrated here.
Highlights
Soil is one of the main reservoirs of fungal species and commonly ranks as the most abundant source regarding fungal biomass and physiological activity
All isolates are maintained in the Johanna Westerdijk (JW) collection housed at the Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute in Utrecht, The Netherlands
The combined internal transcribed spacer (ITS) and LSU dataset comprises 197 sequences including the ones generated in the present study from soil isolates, together with reference sequences of Plectosphaerellaceae taxa download from GenBank, and the outgroup Monilochaetes infuscans CBS 379.77 and CBS 869.96 (Fig. 1)
Summary
Soil is one of the main reservoirs of fungal species and commonly ranks as the most abundant source regarding fungal biomass and physiological activity. Among Ascomycota, the family Plectosphaerellaceae (Glomerellales, Sordariomycetes) harbours important plant pathogens such as Verticillium dahliae, V. alboatrum and Plectosphaerella cucumerina, and several saprobic genera usually found in soil, i.e. Chordomyces, Gibellulopsis and Sodiomyces (Domsch et al 2007; Zare et al 2007; Carlucci et al 2012; Grum-Grzhimaylo et al 2013, 2016) Members of this family are mainly known from their asexual morphs, which are morphologically characterised by simple or verticillate conidiophores with mono- or polyphialidic conidiogenous cells, and 1- or 2-celled elongate conidia arranged in slimy heads or chains, and rarely produced sporodochia or synnemata. The sexual morph is mostly observed in culture, showing perithecial or cleistothecial ascomata, superficial, brown to dark brown, with clavate or saccate asci and hyaline to pale brown ascospores (Giraldo and Crous 2019)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
