Microascaceae from the Marine Environment, with Descriptions of Six New Species

Meng-Meng Wang; Shi-Yu Yang; Qi Li; Yao Zheng; He-He Ma; Ye-Hui Tu; Wei Li; Lei Cai

doi:10.3390/jof10010045

Microascaceae from the Marine Environment, with Descriptions of Six New Species

J Fungi (Basel). 2024 Jan 5;10(1):45. doi: 10.3390/jof10010045.

Authors

Meng-Meng Wang^{1

2

3}, Shi-Yu Yang¹, Qi Li^{1

2

3}, Yao Zheng⁴, He-He Ma⁴, Ye-Hui Tu¹, Wei Li^{1

2

3

4}, Lei Cai⁵

Affiliations

¹ College of Science, Shantou University, Shantou 515063, China.
² Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Marine Biotechnology, Shantou University, Shantou 515063, China.
³ Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Marine Disaster Prediction and Prevention, Shantou University, Shantou 515063, China.
⁴ College of Marine Life Sciences, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266005, China.
⁵ State Key Laboratory of Mycology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.

Abstract

Most reported members of Microascaceae that have been reported originate from the terrestrial environment, where they act as saprobes or plant pathogens. However, our understanding of their species diversity and distribution in the marine environment remains vastly limited, with only 22 species in nine genera having been reported so far. A survey of the fungal diversity in intertidal areas of China's mainland has revealed the discovery of several Microascaceae strains from 14 marine algae and 15 sediment samples. Based on morphological characteristics and LSU-ITS-tef1-tub2 multilocus phylogeny using Bayesian inference and maximum likelihood methods, 48 strains were identified as 18 species belonging to six genera. Among these, six new species were discovered: Gamsia sedimenticola, Microascus algicola, M. gennadii, Scedosporium ellipsosporium, S. shenzhenensis, and S. sphaerospermum. Additionally, the worldwide distribution of the species within this family across various marine habitats was briefly reviewed and discussed. Our study expands the knowledge of species diversity and distribution of Microascaceae in the marine environment.

Keywords: Microascaceae; marine fungi; new species; species diversity.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Science and Technology Fundamental Resources Investigation Program (Grant No. 2019FY100700), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32100005), and the STU Scientific Research Initiation Grant (NTF23002, NTF23018T).