Revision of the genus Aciculosporium (Clavicipitaceae) with a description of a new species on wavyleaf basketgrass, and proline-containing cyclic dipeptide production by A. take.

Abstract

The genus Aciculosporium (Clavicipitaceae, Hypocreales, Ascomycota)was established in 1908 for A. take , which is the causal fungus of witches' broom of bamboo. Although the original description was valid at that time, a type specimen for A. take has not been designated. To standardize the use of this genus and species name, a neotypification and reference specimen of A. take are proposed. Multilocus phylogenetic analyses based on DNA sequences from 28S rDNA, TEF, Tub2, Mcm7, and RPB2 revealed that A.sasicola is from a different lineage to A. take, and other specimens from wavyleaf basket grass (Oplismenus undulatifolius) represent a distinct species proposed here as Aciculosporium oplismeni sp. nov. Chemical analysis using mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy showed that A. take produces four proline-containing cyclic dipeptides, which are moieties of ergot alkaloids. However, ergot alkaloids, lolines, peramine, indole-diterpenes, and lolitrem were not detected in the culture solvent. This study offers clarification of the lineage and morphology of this genus.