Aspergillus cylindricus Zhi.Y. Zhang, Y.F. Han & Z.Q. Liang, 2023

Zhang, Zhi-Yuan, Li, Xin, Chen, Wan-Hao, Liang, Jian-Dong & Han, Yan-Feng, 2023, Culturable fungi from urban soils in China II, with the description of 18 novel species in Ascomycota (Dothideomycetes, Eurotiomycetes, Leotiomycetes and Sordariomycetes), MycoKeys 98, pp. 167-220 : 167

Aspergillus cylindricus Zhi.Y. Zhang, Y.F. Han & Z.Q. Liang sp. nov.

Fig. 4

Etymology.

Referring to the cylindrical phialides.

Type.

China: Shanghai Municipality, Ruijin Hospital , Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine 31°21'29"N, 121°46'75"E, from soil, 15 Aug 2019, Z.Y. Zhang (HMAS 351868 holotype designated here, ex-type living culture CGMCC 3.20771 = GZUIFR 21.887); ibid., GZUIFR 21.888 .

Description.

Culture characteristics (14 d at 25 °C): Colony on PDA 12-13 mm diam., pinkish-white (10A1), velvety to floccose, margin slightly undulate; reverse chrome orange (6A6) to yellowish-white (2A2) from centre to margin. Colony on MEA 15-17 mm diam., bluish-white (1A2), felty, margin dentate; reverse mandarin orange (6B8). Colony on OA 26-27 mm diam., white (4A1), velvety to floccose, margin slightly undulate; reverse brownish-yellow (5C8) to grey (5C1) from centre to margin.

Conidiophores solitary phialides borne laterally or terminally on vegetative hyphae, sometimes occurring in branched hyphal resembling branched conidiophores. Phialides mono- to polyphialidic, hyaline, cylindrical to lageniform, sometimes curved irregularly, swollen towards the base or above the mid-section, neck cylindrical or broadly tapering, sometimes extending sympodially from the neck, 2.0-21.0 × 1.0-5.0 µm. Conidia borne solitary or in chains with pronounced connectors, hyaline, smooth or roughened, ellipsoid to subglobose, pyriform, 3.0-7.5 × 2.5-5.5 µm (av. 5.3 × 4.5 μm, n = 50). Sexual morph not observed.

Additional specimens examined.

China: Shanghai Municipality, South Campus of Fudan University 31°29'30"N, 121°50'03"E, soil, 16 Aug 2019, Z.Y. Zhang, GZUIFR 21.889 .

Notes.

Phylogenetic and morphological data (Figs 3 , 4 ) support our isolates CGMCC 3.20771, GZUIFR 21.888 and GZUIFR 21.889 as new species of subgenus Polypaecilum Polypaecilum , series Canini . Aspergillus cylindricus is phylogenetically closely related to A. doliiformis and A. limoniformis . However, they can be distinguished by their sequence similarity (94% 498/531; 99% 846/853; 88% 394/448; 92% 767/834; 92% 723/788 similarity of ITS, LSU, TUB, RPB2 and TSR1 in A. limoniformis CGMCC 3.19323; 94% 524/554, 99% 1337/1341, 91% 419/458, 94% 1007/1069, 92% 772/843, 91% 629/692 similarity of ITS, LSU, TUB, RPB2, TSR1 and CaM in A. doliiformis CGMCC 3.20772). Morphologically, the conidia of A. limoniformis are limoniform or subglobose, rather than ellipsoid to subglobose, pyriform in A. cylindricus ( Zhang et al. 2021a). On the other hand, A. cylindricus has longer phialides than A. limoniformis (2.0-21.0 µm vs. 4.0-10.0 µm) ( Zhang et al. 2021a). Furthermore, conidia of A. doliiformis are lantern, subglobose to globose, obpyriform rather than ellipsoid to subglobose, pyriform in A. cylindricus . The conidiophores of A. cylindricus are sometimes occurring in branched hyphae resembling branched conidiophores, while the conidiophores of A. doliiformis are borne laterally or terminally on vegetative hyphae (see description of A. doliiformis ).

Figures

Figure 3. Concatenated phylogeny of the ITS, TUB, CaM, RPB 2 and TSR 1 gene regions of species in Aspergillus from subgenus Polypaecilum Polypaecilum. Thirty-five strains are used. The tree is rooted in Hamigera avellanea (CBS 295.48) and Penicillium expansum (CBS 325.48). The tree topology of the BI was similar to the ML analysis. Bayesian posterior probability (≥ 0.8) and ML bootstrap values (≥ 80 %) are indicated along branches (PP / ML). Novel species are in blue and bold font and " T " indicates type derived sequences.

Figure 4. Aspergillus cylindricus (from ex-holotype CGMCC 3.20771) a-c upper and reverse views of cultures on PDA, MEA and OA 14 d after inoculation d-l phialides and conidia. Scale bars: 10 µm (d-l).