Astrocystis multiloculata Y. P. Wu &amp; Q. R. Li 2021, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Wu, You-Peng
name: Pi, Yin-Hui
name: Long, Si-Han
name: Lin, Yan
name: Long, Qing-De
name: Kang, Ji-Chuan
name: Kang, Ying-Qian
name: Shen, Xiang-Chun
name: Wijayawardene, Nalin N.
name: Zhang, Xu
name: Li, Qi-Rui
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2021
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Fungi
Ascomycota
Sordariomycetes
Xylariales
Xylariaceae
Astrocystis
Astrocystis multiloculata

description: <i>Astrocystis multiloculata</i> Y.P. Wu &amp; Q.R. Li, <i>sp. nov</i>. (Fig. 4) MycoBank: MB839643 <b>Type:—</b> CHINA. Yunnan Province: Baoshan City, Lancang River Nature Reserve (24.51946°N, 99.415778°E), elev. 1747 m, on dead bamboo culms, 10 October 2019, Yinhui Pi2019LC129 (GMB0033, holotype; KUN-HKAS 112661, isotype; ex-type living culture, GMBC0033). Saprobic on the surface of dead bamboo culms, visible as black raised lump on the host. <b>Sexual morph</b>: <i>Stromata</i> erumpent, effused lump with flat top, irregular in outline, with a discoid black base, containing many perithecia (mostly more than 8, with independent ostiole), gregarious or solitary, scattered, carbonaceous, embedded on the host surface, 0.6–3.0 mm diam., 0.6–2.4 mm high, smooth, tissue between perithecia woody. <i>Perithecia</i> spherical to obovate, without carbonaceous stromatal tissue surrounding the individual perithecia. <i>Ostioles</i> at the same level as stromatal surface, with slight papillate openings. <i>Asci</i> 120–142 × 7–12.5 μm (mean 131 × 9.5 μm, n = 30), 8-spored, unitunicate, cylindrical, short-pedicellate, persistent, apically rounded, with J+, square-shaped apical apparatus, blue staining in Melzer’s reagent, 3–5 μm (mean 3.5 μm, n = 30) high, 3.0–4.5 μm (mean 3.3 μm, n = 30) wide. <i>Ascospores</i> 19–25 × 7–11 μm (mean 21.5 × 8.7 μm, n = 30), uniseriate, dark reddish brown, aseptate, equilateral ellipsoid, with rounded ends, smooth, with a straight germ slit slightly less than full-length, lacking appendages and sheath. <b>Asexual morph</b>: undetermined. <b>Culture characteristics:—</b> Ascospores germinated on PDA within 24 hours, 25 °C, colonies, dense but thinning towards the edge, edge irregular, white from above, reverse similar in colour. No conidia were observed on PDA or OA media. <b>Habitat/Distribution:—</b> Known to inhabit dead bamboo, Yunnan Province, China. <b>Etymology:—</b> Refers to its stromata containing many ascomata. <b>Other specimens examined:—</b> CHINA. Yunnan Province: Baoshan City, Lancang River Nature Reserve (25.13409°N, 99.352676°E), elev. 2546 m, on dead bamboo culms, 10 October 2019, Yinhui Pi, collection number: 2019LC166 (GMB0032; living culture, GMBC0032). <b>Notes:—</b> Morphologically, <i>A. multiloculata</i> can be distinguished from other <i>Astrocystis</i> species by its superficial stromata, which contain many perithecia (mostly more than 8, with independent ostiole), and larger ascospores (19–25 × 7–11 μm). Phylogenetic analyses based on ITS, RPB2, β-tubulin and α-actin dataset show that <i>A. multiloculata</i> formed a well-separated clade to <i>A. cocoes</i> with high bootstrap support (Fig. 1). <i>Astrocystis multiloculata</i> shows a close relationship with <i>Kretzschmariella</i> in terms of stromata. Both have stromata containing many perithecia, and ascospores with straight germ slit slightly less than spore-length, but <i>K. culmorum</i> (Cooke) Y.M. Ju &amp; J.D. Rogers (Ju &amp; Rogers 1994) and <i>K. guaduae</i> Viégas (Viégas 1994) usually bear a cellular appendage on immature ascospores which distinguish them from <i>A. multiloculata.</i> Moreover, the phylogenetic tree shows that it is more reasonable to place <i>A. multiloculata</i> in <i>Astrocystis.</i>
description: Published as part of <i>Wu, You-Peng, Pi, Yin-Hui, Long, Si-Han, Lin, Yan, Long, Qing-De, Kang, Ji-Chuan, Kang, Ying-Qian, Shen, Xiang-Chun, Wijayawardene, Nalin N., Zhang, Xu &amp; Li, Qi-Rui, 2021, Morphological and phylogenetic study of five species of Astrocystis and Collodiscula on bamboo, pp. 265-284 in Phytotaxa 522 (4)</i> on page 276, DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.522.4.1, http://zenodo.org/record/5565846
description: {"references": ["Ju, Y. M. &amp; Rogers, J. D. (1994) Kretzschmariella culmorum. Mycotaxon 51: 242.", "Viegas, K. G. (1994) Kretzschmariella guaduae. Bragantia 4: 105."]}