Morphophylogenetic evidence reveals four new fungal species within Tetraplosphaeriaceae (Pleosporales, Ascomycota) from tropical and subtropical forest in China

Xia Tang; Rajesh Jeewon; Yong-Zhong Lu; Abdulwahed Fahad Alrefaei; Ruvishika S Jayawardena; Rong-Ju Xu; Jian Ma; Xue-Mei Chen; Ji-Chuan Kang

doi:10.3897/mycokeys.100.113141

Morphophylogenetic evidence reveals four new fungal species within Tetraplosphaeriaceae (Pleosporales, Ascomycota) from tropical and subtropical forest in China

MycoKeys. 2023 Dec 6:100:171-204. doi: 10.3897/mycokeys.100.113141. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Xia Tang^{1

2}, Rajesh Jeewon^{3

4}, Yong-Zhong Lu^{1

5}, Abdulwahed Fahad Alrefaei⁴, Ruvishika S Jayawardena², Rong-Ju Xu², Jian Ma², Xue-Mei Chen⁶, Ji-Chuan Kang¹

Affiliations

¹ Engineering and Research Center for Southwest Biopharmaceutical Resource of National Education Ministry of China, Guizhou University, Guiyang, 550025, Guizhou Province, China.
² Center of Excellence in Fungal Research, Mae Fah Luang University, Chiang Rai, 57100, Thailand.
³ School of Science, Mae Fah Luang University, Chiang Rai, 57100, Thailand.
⁴ Department of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Mauritius, Reduit, Mauritius.
⁵ Department of Zoology, College of Science, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2455, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia.
⁶ School of Food and Pharmaceutical Engineering, Guizhou Institute of Technology, Guiyang, Guizhou Province550003, China.

Abstract

Tetraplosphaeriaceae (Pleosporales, Ascomycota) is a family with many saprobes recorded from various hosts, especially bamboo and grasses. During a taxonomic investigation of microfungi in tropical and subtropical forest regions of Guizhou, Hainan and Yunnan provinces, China, several plant samples were collected and examined for fungi. Four newly discovered species are described based on morphology and evolutionary relationships with their allies inferred from phylogenetic analyses derived from a combined dataset of LSU, ITS, SSU, and tub2 DNA sequence data. Detailed illustrations, descriptions and taxonomic notes are provided for each species. The four new species of Tetraplosphaeriaceae reported herein are Polyplosphaeriaguizhouensis, Polyplosphaeriahainanensis, Pseudotetraploayunnanensis, and Tetraploahainanensis. A checklist of Tetraplosphaeriaceae species with available details on their ecology is also provided.

Keywords: Anamorphic fungi; Dothideomycetes; checklist; ribosomal genes; species diversity; taxonomy.

Xia Tang, Rajesh Jeewon, Yong-Zhong Lu, Abdulwahed Fahad Alrefaei, Ruvishika S. Jayawardena, Rong-Ju Xu, Jian Ma, Xue-Mei Chen, Ji-Chuan Kang.

Grants and funding

This work was funded by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC Grants Nos. 32170019 & 31460011) and the Open Fund Program of Engineering Research Centre of Southwest Bio-Pharmaceutical Resources, Ministry of Education, Guizhou University No. GZUKEY20160702. The authors are grateful to the Thailand Research Fund grant “Impact of climate change on fungal diversity and biogeography in the Greater Mekong Sub-region” (RDG6130001).