Periconia ananasi X.G. Tian & Tibpromma, 2022

Tian, Xingguo, Tibpromma, Saowaluck, Karunarathna, Samantha C., Dai, Dongqin, Bao, Danfeng, Mapook, Ausana & Jayawardena, Ruvishika S., 2022, Additions to the genus Periconia from northern Thailand, Phytotaxa 555 (1), pp. 73-86 : 78-79

Periconia ananasi X.G. Tian & Tibpromma , sp. nov. Fig. 2

Index Fungorum number: IF 559514; Facesoffungi number: FoF 10573

Etymology:— Referring to the host plant Ananas comosus from which the fungus was collected.

Holotype:— MFLU 21–0279

Saprobic on dead leaves of Ananas comosus (L.)Merr. Sexual morph:Undetermined. Asexual morph:Hyphomycetous. Colonies effuse on the natural substrate, gregarious, dark brown to black, floccose, spore masses spread on the host surface. Mycelium partly superficial, composed of septate, brown hyphae. Conidiophores (415–) 545–735 μm (x̄ = 640 μm, n = 25), thick at base, thin at apex, macronematous, mononematous, scattered, single, erect, straight or slightly flexuous, unbranched, septate, cylindrical, smooth, dark brown, paler towards apex. Conidiogenous cells 6–11 × 3–6 μm (x̄ = 8.5 × 4.5 μm, n = 20), mono- to polyblastic, intercalary, discrete on stipe, verruculose, hyaline to pale brown. Conidia 6−8 μm (x̄ = 7 μm, n =50), globose, aseptate, yellow to pale brown, becoming dark brown at maturity, arising at one or more points on curved surface of the conidiogenous cell, catenate, smooth-walled or verrucose or with short spines.

Culture characteristics: —Conidia germinated on PDA within 12 hr, reaching 20 mm diam. in 2 weeks at 25 °C. Colonies on PDA with sparse, white mycelia on the surface, cottony, circular, and flattened; reverse brown with a white margin. Conidiophores and conidia not observed in mature colonies.

Material examined: — THAILAND. Chiang Rai Province: on dead leaves of Ananas comosus , 20 December 2020, X.G. Tian, P9−10 (MFLU 21–0279 holotype), ex - type cultures MFLUCC 21–0155 = KUMCC 21–0470 .

Notes: —In the phylogenetic analyses, two newly obtained strains of Periconia ananasi (MFLUCC 21–0155 and KUMCC 21–0470) clustered basal to four P. prolifica strains (DBOF 129, DBOF 74, DBOF 23, and DBOF 153) ( Fig. 1 ). Morphologically, P. ananasi (MFLU 21–0279 holotype) can be easily distinguished from P. prolifica by macronematous conidiophores, monoblastic and polyblastic, intercalary conidiogenous cells that are discrete on stipe and conidia that are globose, catenate, smooth to verruculose or with short spines. Periconia prolifica has micronematous or semi-micronematous conidiophores, conidiogenous cells often form dense pustules on the substrate and subglobose, single, smooth-walled conidia ( Kohlmeyer 1969). In addition, pairwise nucleotide comparisons showed that P. ananasi (MFLUCC 21–0155) is significantly different from P. prolifica (DBOF 153) in 32/553 bp (5.79%) of the ITS, but we were unable to compare LSU, SSU and TEF 1-α pairwise nucleotides as sequence data for these genes are not available for P. prolifica . Therefore, the new collection is introduced as a distinct new species of Periconia .

Figures

FIGURE 1. Phylogenetic tree generated from a maximum likelihood analysis based on a concatenated alignment of ITS, LSU, SSU, and TEF1-α sequences data in Periconiaceae. The tree is rooted with Morosphaeria ramunculicola (KH220) and M. velatispora (KH221). Bootstrap support values equal to or higher than 70% ML (left) or posterior probability values equal to or higher than 0.90 Bayesian PP (right) are indicated on the nodes. The newly generated sequences are in red, and type strains are in black/red bold.

FIGURE 2. Periconia ananasi (MFLU 21–0279, holotype). a, b. Colonies on natural substrate. c. Tip of a conidiophore. d. Conidiophore. e–m. Conidiogenous cells and conidia. n–q. Conidia. r, s. Colonies on PDA from above and below. Scale bars: d = 200 μm, e–g = 50 μm, c, h–m = 10 μm, n–q = 5 μm.