Apiospora qiannanensis X. Y. Chang & M. J. Chen, 2025

Apiospora qiannanensis X. Y. Chang & M. J. Chen sp. nov.

Fig. 4 View Figure 4

Etymology.

The name refers to the locality where the type specimens were collected, Qiannan Buyi and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Guizhou Province, China.

Typification.

China • Guizhou Province, Qiannan Buyi and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Libo County (25°25'N, 107°53'E), on diseased culms of bamboo, May. 2023, X. H. Yue, holotype GZ 15, ex-type RCEF 7610 GoogleMaps .

Description.

Asexual morph: Hyphae 1.5–6.0 µm diam, hyaline to pale brown, branched, septate. Conidiophores hyaline to pale brown, smooth, erect or ascending, simple, flexuous, subcylindrical, and grouped together. Conidiophores aggregated in brown sporodochia, smooth, hyaline to brown, up to 30 µm long, 3.0–4.0 µm width. Conidiogenous cells 9.5–23.0 × 3.0–5.5 µm (x ̄ = 15.0 ± 4.50 × 4.3 ± 0.9, n = 40), pale brown, smooth, doliiform to subcylindrical. Conidia 16.5–20.8 µm (x ̄ = 18.5 μm, n = 40), pale brown to dark brown, smooth, globose to subglobose. Sexual morph: Undetermined.

Culture characteristics.

Colonies on PDA are fluffy, spreading, and circular, with moderate aerial mycelia, flocculent cotton, surface, and reverse white to grey, reaching 60 mm in 7 d at 25 ° C. On MEA, surface grey-white with abundant mycelia, reverse greyish without patches.

Additional specimens examined.

China • Hunan Province, Ningyuan County, diseased on culms of bamboo, May 2023, other living culture RCEF 7611 .

Note.

Phylogenetic analyses confirmed that A. qiannanensis formed an independent clade (1.0 BIPP and 100 % MLBS), exhibiting a close evolutionary relationship with A. setostroma , A. mytilomorpha , A. subrosea , A. neobambusae , and A. garethjonesii . Based on a BLASTN search of the GenBank database, it was found that A. qiannanensis exhibits some differences in the ITS, LSU, TUB 2, and TEF 1 sequences compared to closely related species: A. setostroma strain KUMCC 19-0217 (92.65 % in ITS, 99.16 % in LSU, 95.01 % in TEF 1); A. mytilomorpha strain DAOM 2145955 (96.28 % in ITS); A. subrosea strain LC 7291 (90.33 % in ITS, 99.02 % in LSU, 94.38 % in TEF 1, 99.25 % in TUB 2); A. neobambusae strain LC 7106 (89.16 % in ITS, 99.16 % in LSU, 95.22 % in TEF 1, 91.94 % in TUB 2); A. garethjonesii strain SICAUCC 22-0027 (93.65 % in ITS, 99.29 % in LSU, 94.50 % in TUB 2); A. gongcheniae strain GDMCC 3.1045 (95.44 % in ITS, 99.41 % in LSU, 93.14 % in TEF 1, 91.77 % in TUB 2).

Morphologically, colony characteristics of A. mytilomorpha are lacking, and the asexual morphology of A. garethjonesii has not been described. We compared the existing morphological data and found that these closely related species have certain differences. A. setostroma and A. subrosea produce pigments in the later stages of colonies, while the others do not. Apiospora qiannanensis , A. mytilomorpha , and A. neobambusae differ in conidia shape (globose to subglobose vs. fusiform or boat-shaped vs. subglobose to ellipsoid) and size (16.5–20.8 μm vs. 20–30 × 6–8.5 μm vs. 11.5–15.5 × 7.0–14.0 μm). In addition, A. qiannanensis differs from A. gongcheniae in having larger conidia (16.5–20.8 µm) compared to A. gongcheniae (8.0–17.0 × 6.8–16.1 µm). Although some morphological features overlap among these taxa, significant genetic divergence is evident, underscoring their distinct species boundaries. For details, see Table 3 View Table 3 . Based on molecular and morphological evidence, we propose A. qiannanensis as a new species.