Novel species of Huntiella from naturally-occurring forest trees in Greece and South Africa

FeiFei Liu; Seonju Marincowitz; ShuaiFei Chen; Michael Mbenoun; Panaghiotis Tsopelas; Nikoleta Soulioti; Michael J Wingfield

doi:10.3897/mycokeys.69.53205

Novel species of Huntiella from naturally-occurring forest trees in Greece and South Africa

MycoKeys. 2020 Jul 10:69:33-52. doi: 10.3897/mycokeys.69.53205. eCollection 2020.

Authors

FeiFei Liu^{1

2}, Seonju Marincowitz¹, ShuaiFei Chen^{1

2}, Michael Mbenoun¹, Panaghiotis Tsopelas³, Nikoleta Soulioti³, Michael J Wingfield¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biochemistry, Genetics and Microbiology (BGM), Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI), University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0028, South Africa University of Pretoria Pretoria South Africa.
² China Eucalypt Research Centre (CERC), Chinese Academy of Forestry (CAF), ZhanJiang, 524022, GuangDong Province, China Chinese Academy of Forestry GuangDong China.
³ Institute of Mediterranean Forest Ecosystems, Terma Alkmanos, 11528 Athens, Greece Institute of Mediterranean Forest Ecosystems Athens Greece.

Abstract

Huntiella species are wood-infecting, filamentous ascomycetes that occur in fresh wounds on a wide variety of tree species. These fungi are mainly known as saprobes although some have been associated with disease symptoms. Six fungal isolates with typical culture characteristics of Huntiella spp. were collected from wounds on native forest trees in Greece and South Africa. The aim of this study was to identify these isolates, using morphological characters and multigene phylogenies of the rRNA internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region, portions of the β-tubulin (BT1) and translation elongation factor 1α (TEF-1α) genes. The mating strategies of these fungi were also determined through PCR amplification of mating type genes. The study revealed two new species; one from Platanus orientalis in Greece and one from Colophospermum mopane and Senegalia nigrescens in South Africa. These novel taxa have been provided with the names, H. hellenica sp. nov. and H. krugeri sp. nov., respectively. The former species was found to have a homothallic and the latter a heterothallic mating system.

Keywords: Ceratocystidaceae; Huntiella; Ceratocystis moniliformis Complex; Colophospermum mopane; Platanus orientalis; Senegalia nigrescens; saprobes.

FeiFei Liu, Seonju Marincowitz, ShuaiFei Chen, Michael Mbenoun, Panaghiotis Tsopelas, Nikoleta Soulioti, Michael J. Wingfield.