Abstract
Palms represent the most morphological diverse monocotyledonous plants and support a vast array of fungi. Recent examinations of palmicolous fungi in Thailand led to the discovery of a group of morphologically similar and interesting taxa. A polyphasic approach based on morphology, multi-gene phylogenetic analyses and divergence time estimates supports the establishment of a novel pleosporalean family Striatiguttulaceae, which diversified approximately 39 (20–63) MYA (crown age) and 60 (35–91) MYA (stem age). Striatiguttulaceae is characterized by stromata or ascomata with a short to long neck, trabeculate pseudoparaphyses and fusiform to ellipsoidal, 1–3-septate ascospores, with longitudinal striations and paler end cells, surrounded by a mucilaginous sheath. Multi-gene phylogenetic analysis showed that taxa of Striatiguttulaceae form a well-supported and distinct monophyletic clade in Pleosporales, and related to Ligninsphaeriaceae and Pseudoastrosphaeriellaceae. However, these families can be morphologically demarcated by the slit-like ascomata and extremely large ascospores in Ligninsphaeriaceae and the rather narrow fusiform ascospores in Pseudoastrosphaeriellaceae. Eight strains of Striatiguttulaceae formed two monophyletic sub-clades, which can be recognized as Longicorpusgen. nov. and Striatiguttulagen. nov. Morphologically, the genus Longicorpus can be differentiated from Striatiguttula by its elongated immersed ascomata and fusiform ascospores with relatively larger middle cells and paler end cells. Two new species Striatiguttulanypae and S.phoenicis, and one new combination, Longicorpusstriataspora are introduced with morphological details, and phylogenetic relationships are discussed based on DNA sequence data.
Highlights
Fungi associated with palms have been intensively investigated by Hyde and his coworkers (Goh and Hyde 1996, Fröhlich and Hyde 2000, Hyde and Alias 2000, Hyde et al 2000, Yanna et al 2001a,b,c, Taylor and Hyde 2003, Hyde et al 2007), and provided a significant contribution to their diversity and taxonomy
The eight strains formed two well-supported monophyletic sub-clades, which can be identified as two new genera (Longicorpus and Striatiguttula) with three species (Longicorpus striataspora, Striatiguttula nypae and S. phoenicis)
A novel pleosporalean family, Striatiguttulaceae is introduced which has been compared to several morphologically similar genera and species recovered from mangroves
Summary
Fungi associated with palms have been intensively investigated by Hyde and his coworkers (Goh and Hyde 1996, Fröhlich and Hyde 2000, Hyde and Alias 2000, Hyde et al 2000, Yanna et al 2001a,b,c, Taylor and Hyde 2003, Hyde et al 2007), and provided a significant contribution to their diversity and taxonomy. Other studies have focused on fungi on peat swamp palms (Pinruan et al 2002, 2007, 2008, 2010b, 2014, Pinnoi et al 2003) and from mangrove palms (Suetrong et al 2009, Loilong et al 2012, Zhang et al 2018). All these examples indicate that species are diverse and palms harbour numerous undescribed microfungi
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