Fusarium mariecurieae Dewing, Visagie & Yilmaz 2025, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Dewing, Claudette
name: Visagie, Cobus M.
name: Steenkamp, Emma T.
name: Wingfield, Brenda D.
name: Yilmaz, Neriman
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Fungi
Ascomycota
Dothideomycetes
Hypocreales
Nectriaceae
Fusarium
Fusarium mariecurieae

description: Fusarium mariecurieae Dewing, Visagie & Yilmaz sp. nov.
Fig. 4
Etymology.
Latin, mariecurieae, named after Maria Salomea Skłodowska-Curie (known simply as Marie Curie) (1867–1934), who was a renowned physicist and chemist known for her pioneering research on radioactivity. We also chose this name, as this study was supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) grant (number 101008129), project acronym “ Mycobiomics ”.
Type.
South Africa • Eastern Cape, from mixed pasture samples, May 2020, collected by A. Davis (holotype: PRU (M) 4611, dried specimen in a metabolically inactive state; ex-type strain: CBS 152079 = CMW 58673 = CN 072 A 3).
Description.
Conidiophores borne on aerial mycelium, 13–106 μm tall, unbranched, sympodial or irregularly branched, bearing terminal or lateral phialides, often reduced to single phialides; aerial phialides mono- and polyphialidic, subulate to subcylindrical, proliferating percurrently, smooth- and thin-walled, 3.5–28.5 × 1.5–4 μm, with inconspicuous thickening; aerial conidia ellipsoidal, fusiform, slightly allantoid to falcate, slender, curved dorsiventrally and more pronounced on the apical half, tapering towards both ends, with a blunt to conical and straight to slightly curved apical cell and a blunt to papillate basal cell, 0–3 (– 5) - septate; 0 - septate conidia: 8–11 × 2.5–3 μm (av. 9.6 × 2.6 μm) (n = 2); 1 - septate conidia: 11–20 × 3–4 μm (av. 15.6 × 3.3 μm) (n = 11); 2 - septate conidia: 15–23 × 3–4 μm (av. 18.7 × 3.6 μm) (n = 6); 3 - septate conidia: 18.5–30.5 × 3–5 μm (av. 23.2 × 3.8 μm) (n = 26); 5 - septate conidia: 33 × 5 μm (n = 1). Sporodochia peach to pale straw, formed abundantly on carnation leaves. Sporodochial conidiophores densely and irregularly branched, bearing apical whorls of 2–3 phialides; sporodochial phialides monophialidic, subulate to subcylindrical, 6–22 × 2–4 μm, smooth, thin-walled, with inconspicuous periclinal thickening; sporodochial conidia falcate, curved dorsiventrally, tapering towards both ends, with a slightly curved apical cell and a blunt to foot-like basal cell, (1 –) 3–5 - septate, hyaline, smooth- and thin-walled; 1 - septate conidia: 12–17 × 3 μm (av. 14.4 × 3.2 μm) (n = 2); 3 - septate conidia: 19–36 × 3–4 μm (av. 30.0 × 3.8 μm) (n = 23); 4 - septate conidia: 31–36 × 4–5 μm (av. 33.2 × 4.3 μm) (n = 4); 5 - septate conidia: 30 × 5 μm (n = 1). Chlamydospores not observed.
Culture characteristics.
Colonies on PDA incubated at 25 ° C in the dark with an average radial growth rate of 5–9 mm / d, occupying an entire 90 mm Petri dish in 7 d; surface white, flat, felty to velvety around the centre, floccose towards the margins, radiate, with abundant aerial mycelium, margin irregular, filiform. Additional colony diam (after 7 d): PDA 10 ° C 12–17; PDA at 15 ° C 29–40; PDA at 20 ° C 48–70; PDA at 30 ° C 68–76; PDA at 35 ° C 4–6. Odour absent. Reverse yellowish white (3 A 2). Diffusible pigments absent. On OA in the dark, occupying an entire 90 mm Petri dish in 7 d; surface white, floccose around the centre, flat, felty to velvety towards the margin, radiate, with abundant aerial mycelium, margin irregular, filiform. Reverse yellowish white (2 A 2). Diffusible pigments absent. On SNA with sparse aerial mycelium, sporulation moderate on the surface of the medium.
Additional materials examined.
South Africa • Eastern Cape, from mixed pasture samples, May 2020, collected by A. Davis, isolated by C. Dewing, Humansdorp area: CMW 58664 = CN 070 E 5, CMW-IA 002131 = CMW 60929 = CN 070 F 5, CMW-IA 003328 = CMW 61372 = CN 070 G 5, CMW 58666 = CN 070 H 6, CBS 151774 = CMW 58667 = CN 070 I 7, CMW 58668 = CN 071 B 2, CMW 58669 = CN 071 C 1, CMW 58670 = CN 071 E 4, CMW-IA 002136 = CMW 60934 = CN 071 F 2, CMW-IA 002137 = CMW 60935 = CN 071 F 3, CMW 58671 = CN 071 F 4, CMW 58676 = CN 072 E 2, CMW 58677 = CN 104 C 2, CMW 58678 = CN 104 E 1, CMW 58679 = CN 106 F 1, CMW 58680 = CN 106 F 8, CMW-IA 003763 = CMW 61535 = CN 106 F 9, CMW 58681 = CN 106 G 1, CMW 58682 = CN 106 G 2, CMW 58683 = CN 106 G 3, CMW 58684 = CN 106 G 4, CN 106 G 5, CMW-IA 003764 = CMW 61536 = CN 110 D 9, CMW 58685 = CN 110 E 2, CN 115 C 6, CN 115 C 9, CN 115 D 4, CN 115 E 8, CMW 61371 = CN 070 G 1, Outside Humansdorp, close to Clarkson: CMW 58665 = CN 070 G 2, CMW 58672 = CN 071 H 1, CMW 58674 = CN 072 B 2, close to Villa Fonte: CMW 58675 = CN 072 B 6.
Notes.
Fusarium mariecurieae belongs to the Incarnatum - clade and is most similar to an unsupported clade containing the following species: F. caatingaense (FIESC 20) (Santos et al. 2019), F. citrullicola (nom. inval.) (Khuna et al. 2022), F. irregulare (FIESC 15) (Wang et al. 2019), F. luffae (FIESC 18) (Wang et al. 2019), F. mianyagense (Han et al. 2023), F. multiceps (FIESC 19) (Xia et al. 2019), F. pernambucanum (FIESC 17) (Santos et al. 2019) and F. sulawesiense (FIESC 16) (Maryani et al. 2019). Fusarium mariecurieae produces both aerial mono- and polyphialides compared to F. irregulare that only produces monophialides (Wang et al. 2019), F. luffae that produces only polyphialides (Wang et al. 2019) and F. mianyagense that lacks aerial phialides (Han et al. 2023). Aerial conidia from F. mariecurieae (0–3 (– 5) - septate; 8–30.5 × 3–5 μm) are smaller than that of F. irregulare (mostly 3 - septate; 16–38.5 × 3–5 μm) (Wang et al. 2019), F. luffae (3–5) - septate; 26.5–46 × 4–5 μm) (Wang et al. 2019), F. multiceps (1 –) 3–4 (– 5) - septate; 16–37 × 3–4 μm) (Xia et al. 2019), F. pernambucanum (1–7) - septate; 7–57 × 2.5–5 μm) (Santos et al. 2019) and F. sulawesiense (3–5 (– 9) - septate; 20.5–67 × 3.5–6 μm) (Maryani et al. 2019). Aerial conidia from F. caatingaense (0–6 - septate; 6–45 × 2.5–5 μm) (Santos et al. 2019) and F. citrullicola (1–5 - septate; 8–39 × 2–4.9 μm) (Khuna et al. 2022) were, at their largest, bigger than those of F. mariecurieae, while aerial conidia were absent from F. mianyagense (Han et al. 2023). Sporodochia were absent from F. citrullicola, F. irregulare and F. luffae (Wang et al. 2019), while chlamydospores were absent from F. irregulare, F. luffae, F. mianyagense, F. multiceps and F. sulawesiense (Maryani et al. 2019; Wang et al. 2019; Xia et al. 2019; Han et al. 2023). Sporodochial conidia from F. mariecurieae (1–3 (– 5) - septate; 12–36 × 3–5 μm) were smaller than that of F. caatingaense (1–5 - septate; 15–50 × 2–4.5 μm) (Santos et al. 2019), F. mianyagense (3 (– 5) - septate; 24.5–36.6 × 2.5–4.9 μm) (Han et al. 2023), F. multiceps ((1 –) 2–5 - septate; 16–46 × 3–4 μm) (Xia et al. 2019) and F. sulawesiense ((3 –) 5 (– 6) - septate; 29.5–43.5 × 4–5.5 μm) (Maryani et al. 2019). Colony colour on PDA differs between F. mariecurieae and closely related species (Maryani et al. 2019; Santos et al. 2019; Wang et al. 2019; Xia et al. 2019; Han et al. 2023) as most other species show more colour across the surface and reverse compared to the white surface and yellowish white (3 A 2) reverse of F. mariecurieae. The growth rate after 7 d on PDA for F. mariecurieae is faster (> 90 mm plate) than that of F. citrullicola (68–74.5 mm) (Khuna et al. 2022), F. irregulare (53–59 mm) (Wang et al. 2019), F. luffae (53–57 mm) (Wang et al. 2019) and F. mianyagense (74–80 mm) (Han et al. 2023). The growth of F. multiceps (> 90 mm plate) (Xia et al. 2019) is similar to that of F. mariecurieae, while the growth rate in terms of diameter was not reported for F. caatingaense, F. pernambucanum and F. sulawesiense (Maryani et al. 2019; Santos et al. 2019). Pairwise comparisons revealed that F. mariecurieae differs from other species by at least 1, 4 and 12 bp for CaM, RPB 2 and TEF, respectively.
description: Published as part of Dewing, Claudette, Visagie, Cobus M., Steenkamp, Emma T., Wingfield, Brenda D. & Yilmaz, Neriman, 2025, Three new species of Fusarium (Nectriaceae, Hypocreales) isolated from Eastern Cape dairy pastures in South Africa, pp. 241-271 in MycoKeys 115 on pages 241-271, DOI: 10.3897/mycokeys.115.148914