Byssosphaeria poaceicola Tennakoon & D. M. Hu 2024, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Tennakoon, Danushka S.
name: Thambugala, Kasun M.
name: de Silva, Nimali I.
name: Song, Hai-Yan
name: Suwannarach, Nakarin
name: Chen, Fu-Sheng
name: Hu, Dian-Ming
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Fungi
Ascomycota
Dothideomycetes
Pleosporales
Melanommataceae
Byssosphaeria
Byssosphaeria poaceicola

description: Byssosphaeria poaceicola Tennakoon & D. M. Hu sp. nov.
Fig. 5
Etymology.
Named after the host family (Poaceae) where this fungus was collected.
Holotype.
HFJAU 10338.
Description.
Saprobic on dead stem of Arundo pliniana Turra (Poaceae). Sexual morph: Ascomata 550–650 × 600–800 µm (x ̄ = 610 × 715 μm, n = 10), solitary to gregarious, superficial, dark brown to black, setose, coriaceous, unilocular, globose to subglobose, non-papillate, apex rounded with an orange to yellow ostiole, ostiole central, with pore-like opening, periphysate. Peridium 30–45 μm wide, thick-walled, composed of 6–7 layers of dark brown cells, orange to yellow near ostiole, arranged in textura angularis. Hamathecium 1–2.5 μm wide, comprising dense, filiform, anastomosing, septate, trabeculate pseudoparaphyses, embedded in a gelatinous matrix. Asci 165–180 × 12–15 μm (x ̄ = 171 × 13 μm, n = 20), 8 - spored, bitunicate, fissitunicate, cylindrical clavate, apically rounded, long pedicellate (30–40 μm), with an indistinct ocular chamber. Ascospores 32–40 × 7–8 μm (x ̄ = 36 × 7.5 μm, n = 30), overlapping, 1–2 - seriate, ellipsoid to fusiform, initially hyaline, pale brown when mature, 1 - septate, constricted at the septum, slightly curved, guttulate, smooth-walled. A sexual morph: Undetermined.
Material examined.
China, Yunnan Province, Kunming, on a dead stem of Arundo pliniana (Poaceae), 22 July 2016, D. S. Tennakoon, KDS 30 (HFJAU 10338, holotype); ibid. 28 August 2016, KDS 29 (HFJAU 10337, paratype).
Notes.
In the combined LSU, SSU, ITS and tef 1 - α phylogenetic analysis, two strains of Byssosphaeria poaceicola (HFJAU 10337 and HFJAU 10338) formed a monophyletic clade sister to By. phoenicis strains (ZHKUCC 21-0122 and ZHKUCC 21-012) with 83 % ML and 0.99 BYPP statistical support. Morphologically, they share similarities in having superficial, dark brown to black, coriaceous, non-papillate ascomata, cylindrical clavate asci and ellipsoid to fusiform, 1 - septate, pale brown ascospores (Kularathnage et al. 2022). Although Byssosphaeria poaceicola can be distinguished from By. phoenicis in their size differences of asci (165–180 × 12–15 μm vs. 100–160 × 10–15 μm) and ascospores (32–40 × 7–8 μm vs. 25–30 × 5–7 μm) (Kularathnage et al. 2022). In addition, a comparison of the 497 nucleotides across the ITS (+ 5.8 S) gene region of By. poaceicola and By. phoenicis shows 16 base pair differences (3.21 %). It is interesting to notice that the Byssosphaeria species have not been collected much from Poaceae hosts, except for bamboo species (Jiang et al. 2022). Based on this finding, it appears that Byssosphaeria species can adapt to a variety of habitats, although there are limited studies to investigate their diversity on various hosts and regions.
description: Published as part of Tennakoon, Danushka S., Thambugala, Kasun M., de Silva, Nimali I., Song, Hai-Yan, Suwannarach, Nakarin, Chen, Fu-Sheng & Hu, Dian-Ming, 2024, An overview of Melanommataceae (Pleosporales, Dothideomycetes): Current insight into the host associations and geographical distribution with some interesting novel additions from plant litter, pp. 43-96 in MycoKeys 106 on pages 43-96, DOI: 10.3897/mycokeys.106.125044