Halosphaeriopsis alopallonella (Meyers et R.T. Moore) Devadatha et E.B.G. Įones 2023

Calabon, Mark S., Jones, E. B. Gareth, Pang, Ka-Lai, Abdel-Wahab, Mohamed A., Jin, Jing, Devadatha, Bandarupalli, Sadaba, Resurreccion B., Apurillo, Carlo Chris & Hyde, Kevin D., 2023, Updates on the classification and numbers of marine fungi, Botanica Marina (Warsaw, Poland) 66 (4), pp. 213-238 : 224

2.5.5 Halosphaeriopsis alopallonella (Meyers et R.T. Moore) Devadatha et E.B.G. Įones , comb. nov.

Basionym: Humicola alopallonella Meyers et R.T. Moore, Am. J. Bot. 47: 346 (1960).

Synonymy: Trichocladium alopallonellum (Meyers et R.T. Moore) Kohlm. et Volkm. - Kohlm., Mycotaxon 53: 352 (1995).

Mycobank number: MB 332021.

Type species: CBS 207.60 ; IFO 7833 ; MUCL 8014 ; UPSC 2185 .

Saprobic on wood. Sexual morph: Undetermined. Asexual morph: Hyphomycetous. Hyphae hyaline to light brown, septate, branched. Conidiophores micronematous, mononematous, resemble non-specialised short lateral vegetative hyphae or conidiophore indistinct, conidia developing directly on hyphae. Conidia 14 – 24 μm × 7 – 11 μm, solitary, thick-walled, smooth, straight, 2 – 4-septate, strongly constricted at the septa, apical cell large subglobose, ellipsoidal, ovoidal to obpyriform, fuscous, reddish-brown to dark brown, basal cell smaller, obconical, light brown (Description based on Pang et al. 2011).

Material examined: USA, Tilia americana , wood, in seawater; Culture isolated by S. P. Meyers, No. F-123, Sept. 1960 (Holotype); USA Florida, Marine Laboratory , Univ. Miami .

Distribution: Aden, Australia, Bahamas, Bermuda, Cameron, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Ivory Coast, Japan, Liberia, Norway, UK ( England Scotland, Wales), USA (Alaska, Hawaii, Washington).

Molecular data: ITS GenBank MH 857957 and LSU ( MH 869509) of CBS 207.60.

Notes: Taxonomically, the seven marine Trichocladium species were difficult to resolve until the advent of molecular phylogeny ( Jones et al. 2009). Cultures of T. achrasporum were shown to be the asexual morph of Halosphaeriopsis mediosetigera ( Shearer and Crane 1977) . Based on sequence data Trichocladium constrictum has been designated the type species of a new genus Cucurbitinus as Cucurbitinus constrictus ( Liu et al. 2020) . Trichocladium medullare has been transferred to the new genus Kohlmeyeriopsis as K. medullaris (Klaubauf et al. 2014) . Jones et al. (2019) listed four marine Trichocladium species T. alopallonellum T. griseum , T. lignicola , and T. melhae . Here we refer T. alopallonellum to Halosphaeriopsis based on sequence data of the type collection ( Meyers and Moore 1960). The taxonomic status of the remaining marine Trichocladium species remains unresolved as does that of many other terrestrial and freshwater Trichocladium species (Index Fungorum, viewed April 2023).

In Figure 3 , T. alopallonella groups in a sister clade with H. mediosetigera with high statistical support (100 %) in the Halosphaeriaceae , while other Trichocladium species form a sister clade to Humicola species. The phylogenetic tree was based on a combined analysis of the 28 S and 18 S rRNA sequence data. Morphologically, Trichocladium and Humicola species are difficult to separate resulting in confusing taxonomy, which is not surprising as they are phylogenetically closely related. Goh and Hyde (1999), in their review of the genus Trichocladium , illustrated the great diversity of conidial morphology of its species, with T. alopallonella often confused with Humicola as illustrated in the above synonymy.

Figures

Figure 3: Randomized axelerated maximum likelihood (RAxML) phylogenetic tree based on a combined analysis of the 28S and 18S rRNA sequence data. Bootstrap support values for ML (>70 %) are given above each branch. The newly transferred isolate is shown in blue. The tree is rooted to Ceratocystis adiposa CCFC212707.