Taxonomy and Phylogenetic Appraisal of Dothideomycetous Fungi Associated with Magnolia, Lilium longiflorum and Hedychium coronarium

Nimali I de Silva; Kasun M Thambugala; Danushka S Tennakoon; Samantha C Karunarathna; Jaturong Kumla; Nakarin Suwannarach; Saisamorn Lumyong

doi:10.3390/jof8101094

Taxonomy and Phylogenetic Appraisal of Dothideomycetous Fungi Associated with Magnolia, Lilium longiflorum and Hedychium coronarium

J Fungi (Basel). 2022 Oct 17;8(10):1094. doi: 10.3390/jof8101094.

Authors

Nimali I de Silva^{1

2}, Kasun M Thambugala³, Danushka S Tennakoon^{1

2}, Samantha C Karunarathna⁴, Jaturong Kumla^{1

2}, Nakarin Suwannarach^{1

2}, Saisamorn Lumyong^{1

2

5}

Affiliations

¹ Research Center of Microbial Diversity and Sustainable Utilization, Faculty of Science, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand.
² Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand.
³ Genetics and Molecular Biology Unit, Faculty of Applied Sciences, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Gangodawila, Nugegoda 10250, Sri Lanka.
⁴ Center for Yunnan Plateau Biological Resources Protection and Utilization, College of Biological Resource and Food Engineering, Qujing Normal University, Qujing 655011, China.
⁵ Academy of Science, The Royal Society of Thailand, Bangkok 10300, Thailand.

Abstract

This paper highlights the taxonomy of some interesting saprobic microfungi associated with dead plant materials of Hedychium coronarium, Lilium longiflorum, and Magnolia species. The taxa reported in this study belong to the orders Pleosporales and Kirschsteiniotheliales (Dothideomycetes). These taxa were identified based on multi-locus phylogeny of nuclear ribosomal DNA (rDNA) (LSU, SSU, and ITS) and protein-coding genes (tef1-α and rpb2), together with comprehensive morphological characterization. Two novel saprobic species, Leptoparies magnoliae sp. nov. and Neobambusicola magnoliae sp. nov., are introduced from Magnolia species in Thailand. Another new species, Asymmetrispora zingiberacearum sp. nov., is also described from dead stems of H. coronarium, which is the first asexual morph species of the genus Asymmetrispora. In addition, Ramusculicola thailandica and Kirschsteiniothelia thailandica are reported as new host records from dead twigs of Magnolia species. Sphaerellopsis paraphysata is reported as a new host record from L. longiflorum. Newly described taxa are compared with other similar species and detailed descriptions, micrographs, and phylogenetic trees to show the positions are provided.

Keywords: 3 new species; Dothideomycetes; multi-locus sequence analysis; saprobes; taxonomy.

Grants and funding

The research was supported by Post-Doctoral Fellowship 2022 for Reinventing Chiang Mai University (R000031240). This project was funded by the National Research Center of Thailand (No. 42A650198).