Abstract
Huntiella species are wood-infecting, filamentous ascomycetes that occur in fresh wounds on a wide variety of tree species. These fungi are mainly known as saprobes although some have been associated with disease symptoms. Six fungal isolates with typical culture characteristics of Huntiella spp. were collected from wounds on native forest trees in Greece and South Africa. The aim of this study was to identify these isolates, using morphological characters and multigene phylogenies of the rRNA internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region, portions of the β-tubulin (BT1) and translation elongation factor 1α (TEF-1α) genes. The mating strategies of these fungi were also determined through PCR amplification of mating type genes. The study revealed two new species; one from Platanus orientalis in Greece and one from Colophospermum mopane and Senegalia nigrescens in South Africa. These novel taxa have been provided with the names, H. hellenicasp. nov. and H. krugerisp. nov., respectively. The former species was found to have a homothallic and the latter a heterothallic mating system.
Highlights
Huntiella species are members of the family Ceratocystidaceae (Microascales, Sordariomycetes) as defined by De Beer et al (2014)
Four isolates were collected from Colophospermum mopane and Senegalia nigrescens in the Kruger National Park of South Africa and two isolates were from Platanus orientalis in Greece
Ascomata resembling Huntiella spp. were observed on twig baits from P. orientalis samples from Greece and two isolates were obtained in pure culture
Summary
Huntiella species are members of the family Ceratocystidaceae (Microascales, Sordariomycetes) as defined by De Beer et al (2014). The type species of Huntiella, H. moniliformis, was first isolated from a sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua) in Texas, USA (Von Schrenk 1903). It was initially described as Ceratostomella moniliformis (Hedgcock 1906) and later transferred to Ceratocystis (Moreau 1952). Aleurioconidia are rarely found in Huntiella species unlike most species of Ceratocystis sensu stricto with which they were previously confused (Hedgcock 1906; De Beer et al 2014; Mbenoun et al 2016)
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