Sporocadus crataegicola R. Xu, S. Q. Tian & Phukhams. & Y. Li, 2025

Xu, Rong, Su, Wenxin, Tian, Shangqing, Bhunjun, Chitrabhanu S., Li, Yu & Phukhamsakda, Chayanard, 2025, Morphology and phylogeny reveal two new species of pestalotioid fungi associated with hawthorn in Northeast China, MycoKeys 122, pp. 149-168 : 149-168

publication ID

https://doi.org/10.3897/mycokeys.122.153767

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17101409

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/B16531C9-BD15-5E50-AD48-AE9FBD4E0E83

treatment provided by

MycoKeys by Pensoft

scientific name

Sporocadus crataegicola R. Xu, S. Q. Tian & Phukhams. & Y. Li
status

sp. nov.

Sporocadus crataegicola R. Xu, S. Q. Tian & Phukhams. & Y. Li sp. nov.

Fig. 3 View Figure 3

Etymology.

Refers to the host genus, Crataegus .

Description.

Saprobic on dead leaves of Crataegus pinnatifida . Sexual morph: Undetermined. Asexual morph: Conidiomata 58–73 × 106–148 (x ̄ = 64.8 × 123.7 μm, n = 5), acervular, unilocular, subglobose, superficial to sub-epidermal, solitary, light brown, with a conspicuous apapillate ostiolate. Conidiomata wall (10–15 µm) composed of brown cells. Conidiophores 14.8–18.6 µm, long, cylindrical, branched, hyaline, smooth-walled. Conidia 12–17.5 × 4.5–7 μm (x ̄ = 14.71 × 5.6 μm, n = 30), fusiform, straight, infrequently slightly curved, initially hyaline, pale brown at maturity, with 0–3 transverse septa, constricted at the septa, smooth-walled, with thick walls pale brown at maturity, narrowly rounded at both ends, lacking appendages; basal cell obconic with a truncate base, subhyaline to pale brown, 2–4 μm long (x ̄ = 3.3 µm), with two median cells subcylindrical to doliform, with thick verruculose walls, pale brown, 6–9 μm long (x ̄ = 7.4 µm), with apical cell conical and rounded at apex, pale brown, cylindrical to subcylindrical, 3–5.5 μm long (x ̄ = 4 µm).

Culture characteristics.

Colonies on PDA, reaching 3–4 cm after 7 days at 25 ° C. Culture from above, circular, filamentous, dense, fluffy, rough surface, grayish white, flat with abundant and flocculent aerial hyphae, entire edge; reverse orange at the center, and pale yellow towards the edge.

Material examined.

China • Jilin Province: Changchun , dead leaves of Crataegus pinnatifida Bunge , 29 June 2022, Rong Xu, S. Q. Tian and C. Phukhamsakda, HMJAU 60191 ( holotype); ex-type, EMFCC 0015 .

GenBank accession numbers.

ITS = OR 791295, LSU = OR 791293, rpb 2 = PQ 096955, tef 1 - α = PQ 096032.

Notes.

A BLASTn search of the ITS region of strain EMFCC 0015 showed a high query cover and similarity (98.79 %) to S. corni MFLUCC 14-0467. The LSU sequence showed 99.54 % similarity to S. lichenicola ( CBS 160.25 ) across 98 % of the query sequence, which translates to 97.55 % similarity. The closest rpb 2 and tef 1 - α matches were S. rotundatus ( CBS 616.83 ) with 95.99 % similarity and 95.24 % similarity, respectively. The morphology of the conidiomata, conidia, and median cells of our isolate fits well with the descriptions of the asexual morph of Sporocadus ( Nag Raj 1993; Liu et al. 2019). Phylogenetic analyses of combined ITS, LSU, rpb 2, tef 1 - α, and tub 2 datasets (Fig. 1 View Figure 1 ) show that S. crataegicola ( EMFCC 0015 ) formed a distinct clade and clustered with S. changchunensis and S. rotundatus with 98 % ML and 1.00 BPP. Conidia of S. rotundatus are clavate, obovoid, ellipsoid, or cylindrical (with rounded ends) and have 1–4 septa, whereas those of our isolate are fusiform with 0–3 septa. The asexual morph of S. changchunensis remains undetermined. Notably, Sporocadus crataegicola differs from S. changchunensis in 7 / 560 bp in ITS, 10 / 875 bp in LSU, 28 / 819 bp in rpb 2, and 27 / 452 bp in tef 1 - α. Thus, we describe our isolate as a new taxon herein.

CBS

Centraalbureau voor Schimmelcultures, Fungal and Yeast Collection