Curvularia geniculata Boedijn
Creators: name: Yang, Erfu
name: Karunarathna, Samantha C.
name: Priyashantha, Alviti Kankanamalage Hasith
name: Promputtha, Itthayakorn
name: Chen, Xuemei
name: Elgorban, Abdallah M.
name: Bashir, Nawaz Haider
name: Tibpromma, Saowaluck
name: Dossa, Gbadamassi G. O.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Fungi
Ascomycota
Sordariomycetes
Sordariales
Helminthosphaeriaceae
Curvularia
Curvularia geniculata

description: Curvularia geniculata (Tracy & Earle) Boedijn, Bull. Jard. bot. Buitenz, 3 Sér. 13(1): 129 (1933)
Index Fungorum number: IF265873
Descriptions: Saprobic or entomopathogenic on dead caterpillars, presenting white-brown mycelia surrounding the host. Mycelium 2–6 μm wide (x̄ = 4.5 μm, n = 20), hyaline to dark brown, septate, branched, tubular, thick-walled. The asexual morph produced in the PDA within a month. Sexual morph: undetermined. Asexual morph: Conidiophores developed from hyphae, cylindrical straight to flexuous, thick-walled, sometimes swollen at the base, unbranched, olivaceous brown to dark brown, lighter towards apex. Conidiogenous nodes terminal or intercalary, dark brown, 1–3 μm (x̄ = 2 μm, n = 10). Conidia 20–27 × 7–10 μm (x̄ = 23 × 8.5 μm, n = 20), finely verruculose, straight or curved, ellipsoidal to ovoid, finely verruculose, hyaline to olivaceous to brown, middle cells disproportionately enlarged, apical and basal cells usually paler, 4-distoseptate when fully mature. Hilum protuberant, slightly thickened, 1–3 μm wide. Stroma dark black, branched 50–100 mm high, 1–2 mm wide.
Culture characteristics: The fungal strain sporulated within one month in PDA at 20–25 ℃. Colonies on PDA fast-growing, reaching around 30 cm in one week at room temperature (20–25 ℃). Colonies circular, low convex, lowly dense, brown, edge entire, formed oblong, raised, dark-brown stroma at the peripheries, dark-brown from the reverse. Without pigments produced in PDA media.
Known substratum: Eye infections of human patients (Nityananda et al. 1964); Microstegium vimineum (Huang et al. 2017); Parthenium hysterophorus (Priyadharsini & Muthukumar 2017); dead caterpillars (this study); Maize (Manzar et al. 2021); Bletilla striata (Xie et al. 2023).
Known distribution: Colombo, Sri Lanka (Nityananda et al. 1964); Hunan / Yunnan / Zhejiang, China (Huang et al. 2017, Xie et al. 2023, this study); Tamilnadu / Uttar Pradesh, India (Priyadharsini & Muthukumar 2017, Manzar et al. 2021).
Material examined: China, Yunnan Province, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, on dead caterpillars, 20 July 2022, Dossa G.G.O., XG9 (HKAS 129046), living culture KUNCC23-13357.
Notes: Based on the BLASTn searches of LSU, ITS, gapdh, and tef1-α, our isolate KUNCC 23-13357 is highly similar (99–100%) to Curvularia geniculata strains (CBS 187.50, Tea-N8, NB871), meanwhile, the morphological characteristics also well match to the concept of Curvularia and C. geniculata, with developing black, brown stroma on PDA, producing straight or curved, multi-celled conidia, with hila at the base, and the third cell from the base often darker and larger than the others (Marin-Felix et al. 2020). In addition, the multi-genes phylogenetic analyses also indicated our KUNCC 23-13357 clusters with C. geniculata strains (CBS 187.50, Tea-N8=NB871) (Figure 1). Previously, C. geniculata was often reported as leaf spots causing agent of plant hosts in China, such as Bletilla striata (Orchidaceae), Microstegium vimineum, and Musa acuminate (Huang et al. 2017, Qi et al. 2022, Xie et al. 2023). Thus, here we report a new host record of C. geniculata associated with dead caterpillars (Figure 3).
description: Published as part of Yang, Erfu, Karunarathna, Samantha C., Priyashantha, Alviti Kankanamalage Hasith, Promputtha, Itthayakorn, Chen, Xuemei, Elgorban, Abdallah M., Bashir, Nawaz Haider, Tibpromma, Saowaluck & Dossa, Gbadamassi G. O., 2024, Microfungi associated with dead caterpillars and spiders in Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, P. R. China, pp. 243-257 in Phytotaxa 644 (4) on pages 249-250, DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.644.4.1, http://zenodo.org/record/13214762