Diatrypasimilis australiensis J.J.Zhou & Kohlm

Dayarathne, Monika C., Wanasinghe, Dhanushka N., Devadatha, B., Abeywickrama, Pranami, G, E. B., Jones, areth, Chomnunti, Putarak, Sarma, V. V., Hyde, Kevin D., Lumyong, Saisamorn, C., Eric H. & Mckenzie, 2020, Modern taxonomic approaches to identifying diatrypaceous fungi from marine habitats, with a novel genus Halocryptovalsa Dayarathne & K. D. Hyde, gen. nov., Cryptogamie, Mycologie 20 (3), pp. 21-67 : 48

Diatrypasimilis australiensis J.J.Zhou & Kohlm

Mycologia 102 (2): 432 (2010).

DESCRIPTION AND ILLUSTRATION. — SeeAbdel-Wahab et al. (2014).

DISTRIBUTION. — Australia, Saudi Arabia.

NOTES

Diatrypasimilis australiensis has characters that are common to the Diatrypaceae , but the ellipsoidal ascospores, with a germ slit are unique. Members of Diatrypaceae usually have allantoid ascospores and lack germ pores or slits ( Chalkley et al. 2010; Abdel-Wahab et al. 2014). However, the original authors did not fully characterize the morphology of the fungus on natural substrates, apparently because of a lack of material (Abdel-Wahab et al. 2014). Abdel-Wahab et al. (2014) re-described this fungus based on a culture isolated from unidentified driftwood at Yanbu beach, Saudi Arabia. This isolate of Diatrypasimilis australiensis was different from the type species in having larger, deeply immersed ascomata (Abdel-Wahab et al. 2014). However, the difference between the two collections did not warrant separation at the species level. The strain from Saudi Arabia (Abdel-Wahab et al. 2014) produced holoblastic conidia singly, while in the type strain, the conidiophores proliferated either sympodially or annellidically, or possibly by a combination of both, producing conidia on minute denticles ( Chalkley et al. 2010). Abdel-Wahab et al. (2014) noted that LSU sequences of the two strains were 99% similar. According to our phylogenetic analysis with combined ITS+Btub Diatrypasimilis australiensis groups in a clade (clade K) comprising Monosporascus cannonballus (ATCC 26931 and CMM3646) as a basal lineage ( Fig. 1 ). ITS analysis yielded a single clade (clade M) comprising Halocryptovalsa salicorniae Dayarathne & K.D.Hyde , sp. nov. (MFLUCC 15-0185) and Diatrypasimilis australiensis but with no statistical support ( Fig. 2 ). These two species are morphologically different from each other.

Figures

FIG. 1. — Phylogram generated from the best scoring RAxML tree based on combined ITS and Btub sequence data. Bootstrap support values for maximum likelihood (ML,black) and maximum parsimony (MP, blue) equal or greater than 60 % are given above the nodes. Bayesian posterior probabilities (PP,green) equal or greater than 0.90 are shown above the branch. The tree is rooted to Xylaria hypoxylon (CBS 122620) and Kretzschmaria deusta (CBS 826.72). All sequences from ex-type strains are in bold. Symbols:, polysporous species;, octosporous species;, species with less than eight spores. Scale bar: 0.2 (expected number of nucleotide substitutions per site per branch).

FIG. 2. — Phylogram generated from the best scoring RAxML tree based on ITS sequence data. Bootstrap support values for maximum likelihood (ML, black) and maximum parsimony (MP, blue) equal or greater than 60% are given above the nodes. Bayesian posterior probabilities (PP,green) equal or greater than 0.90 are shown above the branch. The tree is rooted to Xylaria hypoxylon (CBS 122620) and Kretzschmaria deusta (CBS 826.72). Scale bar: 0.09 (expected number of nucleotide substitutions per site per branch).