Molecular phylogenetic studies on the lichenicolous Xanthoriicola physciae reveal Antarctic rock-inhabiting fungi and Piedraia species among closest relatives in the Teratosphaeriaceae

A new genus, Zhurbenkoa, and a novel nutritional mode revealed in the family Malmideaceae (Lecanoromycetes, Ascomycota)

Lichen-inhabiting fungi are highly specialized mycoparasites, commensals or rarely saprotrophs, that are common components of almost every ecosystem, where they develop obligate associations with lichens. Their relevance, however, contrasts with the relatively small number of these fungi described so far. Recent estimates and ongoing studies indicate that a significant fraction of their diversity remains undiscovered and may be expected in tropical regions, in particular in hyperdiverse fog-exposed montane forests. Here, we introduce the new genus Zhurbenkoa, from South America and Europe, for three lichenicolous fungi growing on thalli of the widespread lichen genus Cladonia (Lecanorales). Phylogenetic analyses based on combined sequence data of mt and nuc rDNA obtained from Andean populations (Bolivia) placed Zhurbenkoa as a member of Malmideaceae, a recently introduced family of lichen-forming fungi in the class Lecanoromycetes. Zhurbenkoa is closely related to the genera Savoronala and Sprucidea. The new genus is characterized by the development of grayish brown to almost black apothecia lacking an evident margin, an epihymenium interspersed with crystals (often seen as pruina), a strongly conglutinated hymenium made of noncapitate and sparsely branched paraphyses, a colorless exciple composed of radially arranged hyphae, a Lecanora/Micarea-like ascus type, and aseptate or 1-septate ellipsoidal colorless ascospores. Zhurbenkoa includes two Neotropical (Z. cladoniarum, Z. latispora) and one widespread (Z. epicladonia) species. The lichenicolous trophic mode is documented for the first time in the Malmideaceae, which until now included only lichen-forming associations between fungi and green algae.

Description of Aeminiaceae fam. nov., Aeminium gen. nov. and Aeminiumludgeri sp. nov. (Capnodiales), isolated from a biodeteriorated art-piece in the Old Cathedral of Coimbra, Portugal

When colonizing stone monuments, microcolonial black fungi are considered one of the most severe and resistant groups of biodeteriorating organisms, posing a very difficult challenge to conservators and biologists working with cultural heritage preservation. During an experimental survey aimed to isolate fungi from a biodeteriorated limestone art piece in the Old Cathedral of Coimbra, Portugal (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), an unknown microcolonial black fungus was retrieved. The isolated fungus was studied through a complete examination based on multilocus phylogeny of a combined dataset of ITS rDNA, LSU and rpb2, in conjunction with morphological, physiological, and ecological characteristics. This integrative analysis allows for the description of a new family, Aeminiaceae fam. nov., a new genus Aeminium gen. nov., and a new species, Aeminiumludgeri sp. nov., in the order Capnodiales.

Phylogenetic placement within Lecanoromycetes of lichenicolous fungi associated with Cladonia and some other genera

Though most of the lichenicolous fungi belong to the Ascomycetes, their phylogenetic placement based on molecular data is lacking for numerous species. In this study the phylogenetic placement of 19 species of lichenicolous fungi was determined using four loci (LSU rDNA, SSU rDNA, ITS rDNA and mtSSU). The phylogenetic analyses revealed that the studied lichenicolous fungi are widespread across the phylogeny of Lecanoromycetes. One species is placed in Acarosporales, Sarcogyne sphaerospora; five species in Dactylosporaceae, Dactylospora ahtii, D. deminuta, D. glaucoides, D. parasitica and Dactylospora sp.; four species belong to Lecanorales, Lichenosticta alcicorniaria, Epicladonia simplex, E. stenospora and Scutula epiblastematica. The genus Epicladonia is polyphyletic and the type E. sandstedei belongs to Leotiomycetes. Phaeopyxis punctum and Bachmanniomyces uncialicola form a well supported clade in the Ostropomycetidae. Epigloea soleiformis is related to Arthrorhaphis and Anzina. Four species are placed in Ostropales, Corticifraga peltigerae, Cryptodiscus epicladonia, C. galaninae and C. cladoniicola comb. nov. (= Lettauia cladoniicola). Three new species are described, Dactylospora ahtii, Cryptodiscus epicladonia and C. galaninae.

Raman spectroscopic analysis of the effect of the lichenicolous fungus Xanthoriicola physciae on its lichen host

Lichenicolous (lichen-dwelling) fungi have been extensively researched taxonomically over many years, and phylogenetically in recent years, but the biology of the relationship between the invading fungus and the lichen host has received limited attention, as has the effects on the chemistry of the host, being difficult to examine in situ. Raman spectroscopy is an established method for the characterization of chemicals in situ, and this technique is applied to a lichenicolous fungus here for the first time. Xanthoriicola physciae occurs in the apothecia of Xanthoria parietina, producing conidia at the hymenium surface. Raman spectroscopy of apothecial sections revealed that parietin and carotenoids were destroyed in infected apothecia. Those compounds protect healthy tissues of the lichen from extreme insolation and their removal may contribute to the deterioration of the apothecia. Scytonemin was also detected, but was most probably derived from associated cyanobacteria. This work shows that Raman spectroscopy has potential for investigating changes in the chemistry of a lichen by an invading lichenicolous fungus.

Riding with the ants

Isolates of Teratosphaeriaceae have frequently been found in the integument of attine ants, proving to be common and diverse in this microenvironment. The LSU phylogeny of the ant-isolated strains studied revealed that they cluster in two main lineages. The first was associated with the genus Xenopenidiella whereas the other represented two ant-isolated lineages sister to the taxa Penidiella aggregata and P. drakensbergensis, which are allocated to the new genus Penidiellomyces. The genus Penidiella is limited to the lineage containing P. columbiana, which is not congeneric with Penidiellomyces or Penidiellopsis, nor with Simplicidiella, a novel genus introduced here to accommodate a strain isolated from ants. For species level analysis, the final 26 aligned sequences of the ITS (498 characters), cmdA (389 characters), tef1 (342 characters) and tub2 (446 characters) gene regions lead to the introduction of six new species in Xenopenidiella, and one in respectively Penidiellopsis and Simplicidiella. The species described in this study were distinguished by the combination of morphological and phylogenetic data. Novelties on the integument of leaf-cutting ants from Brazil include: Penidiellopsis ramosus, Xenopenidiella clavata, X. formica, X. inflata, X. laevigata, X. nigrescens, X. tarda spp. nov., and Simplicidiella nigra gen. & sp. nov. Beta-tubulin is recommended as primary barcode for the distinction of species in Penidiellopsis, whereas ITS was sufficient to distinguish species of Xenopenidiella.

Cyphobasidium gen. nov., a new lichen-inhabiting lineage in the Cystobasidiomycetes (Pucciniomycotina, Basidiomycota, Fungi)

Pucciniomycotina is a highly diverse group of fungi, showing a remarkably wide range of lifestyles and ecologies. However, lichen-inhabiting fungi are only represented by a few species included in the genera Chionosphaera and Cystobasidium, and their phylogenetic position has never been investigated. Phylogenetic analyses using the nuclear SSU, ITS, and LSU ribosomal DNA markers reveal that the lichenicolous members of Cystobasidium (C. hypogymniicola, C. usneicola) form a monophyletic group distinct from Cystobasidium and outside the Cystobasidiales. The new genus Cyphobasidium is consequently described to accommodate these lichen-inhabiting species. Cyphobasidium is characterized by producing conspicuous galls on the host lichen thalli, by having distinctive basidia that arise from a thick-walled, cup-like structure, the probasidium, that persists after the senescence of the actual basidium (meiosporangium), and by its lichenicolous occurrence on species of Hypogymnia and Usnea. Cyphobasidium is one of the few representatives of the Cystobasidiomycetes in which the sexual stage predominates in nature, whereas most species in the group are known only from an asexual yeast phase. This is the first time the position of lichen-inhabiting taxa within the Pucciniomycotina is investigated using molecular data.

Fungal Planet description sheets: 214-280

Novel species of microfungi described in the present study include the following from South Africa: Cercosporella dolichandrae from Dolichandra unguiscati, Seiridium podocarpi from Podocarpus latifolius, Pseudocercospora parapseudarthriae from Pseudarthria hookeri, Neodevriesia coryneliae from Corynelia uberata on leaves of Afrocarpus falcatus, Ramichloridium eucleae from Euclea undulata and Stachybotrys aloeticola from Aloe sp. (South Africa), as novel member of the Stachybotriaceae fam. nov. Several species were also described from Zambia, and these include Chaetomella zambiensis on unknown Fabaceae, Schizoparme pseudogranati from Terminalia stuhlmannii, Diaporthe isoberliniae from Isoberlinia angolensis, Peyronellaea combreti from Combretum mossambiciensis, Zasmidium rothmanniae and Phaeococcomyces rothmanniae from Rothmannia engleriana, Diaporthe vangueriae from Vangueria infausta and Diaporthe parapterocarpi from Pterocarpus brenanii. Novel species from the Netherlands include: Stagonospora trichophoricola, Keissleriella trichophoricola and Dinemasporium trichophoricola from Trichophorum cespitosum, Phaeosphaeria poae, Keissleriella poagena, Phaeosphaeria poagena, Parastagonospora poagena and Pyrenochaetopsis poae from Poa sp., Septoriella oudemansii from Phragmites australis and Dendryphion europaeum from Hedera helix (Germany) and Heracleum sphondylium (the Netherlands). Novel species from Australia include: Anungitea eucalyptorum from Eucalyptus leaf litter, Beltraniopsis neolitseae and Acrodontium neolitseae from Neolitsea australiensis, Beltraniella endiandrae from Endiandra introrsa, Phaeophleospora parsoniae from Parsonia straminea, Penicillifer martinii from Cynodon dactylon, Ochroconis macrozamiae from Macrozamia leaf litter, Triposporium cycadicola, Circinotrichum cycadis, Cladosporium cycadicola and Acrocalymma cycadis from Cycas spp. Furthermore, Vermiculariopsiella dichapetali is described from Dichapetalum rhodesicum (Botswana), Ophiognomonia acadiensis from Picea rubens (Canada), Setophoma vernoniae from Vernonia polyanthes and Penicillium restingae from soil (Brazil), Pseudolachnella guaviyunis from Myrcianthes pungens (Uruguay) and Pseudocercospora neriicola from Nerium oleander (Italy). Novelties from Spain include: Dendryphiella eucalyptorum from Eucalyptus globulus, Conioscypha minutispora from dead wood, Diplogelasinospora moalensis and Pseudoneurospora canariensis from soil and Inocybe lanatopurpurea from reforested woodland of Pinus spp. Novelties from France include: Kellermania triseptata from Agave angustifolia, Zetiasplozna acaciae from Acacia melanoxylon, Pyrenochaeta pinicola from Pinus sp. and Pseudonectria rusci from Ruscus aculeatus. New species from China include: Dematiocladium celtidicola from Celtis bungeana, Beltrania pseudorhombica, Chaetopsina beijingensis and Toxicocladosporium pini from Pinus spp. and Setophaeosphaeria badalingensis from Hemerocallis fulva. Novel genera of Ascomycetes include Alfaria from Cyperus esculentus (Spain), Rinaldiella from a contaminated human lesion (Georgia), Hyalocladosporiella from Tectona grandis (Brazil), Pseudoacremonium from Saccharum spontaneum and Melnikomyces from leaf litter (Vietnam), Annellosympodiella from Juniperus procera (Ethiopia), Neoceratosperma from Eucalyptus leaves (Thailand), Ramopenidiella from Cycas calcicola (Australia), Cephalotrichiella from air in the Netherlands, Neocamarosporium from Mesembryanthemum sp. and Acervuloseptoria from Ziziphus mucronata (South Africa) and Setophaeosphaeria from Hemerocallis fulva (China). Several novel combinations are also introduced, namely for Phaeosphaeria setosa as Setophaeosphaeria setosa, Phoma heteroderae as Peyronellaea heteroderae and Phyllosticta maydis as Peyronellaea maydis. Morphological and culture characteristics along with ITS DNA barcodes are provided for all taxa.

Introducing the Consolidated Species Concept to resolve species in the Teratosphaeriaceae

The Teratosphaeriaceae represents a recently established family that includes numerous saprobic, extremophilic, human opportunistic, and plant pathogenic fungi. Partial DNA sequence data of the 28S rRNA and RPB2 genes strongly support a separation of the Mycosphaerellaceae from the Teratosphaeriaceae, and also provide support for the Extremaceae and Neodevriesiaceae, two novel families including many extremophilic fungi that occur on a diversity of substrates. In addition, a multi-locus DNA sequence dataset was generated (ITS, LSU, Btub, Act, RPB2, EF-1α and Cal) to distinguish taxa in Mycosphaerella and Teratosphaeria associated with leaf disease of Eucalyptus, leading to the introduction of 23 novel genera, five species and 48 new combinations. Species are distinguished based on a polyphasic approach, combining morphological, ecological and phylogenetic species concepts, named here as the Consolidated Species Concept (CSC). From the DNA sequence data generated, we show that each one of the five coding genes tested, reliably identify most of the species present in this dataset (except species of Pseudocercospora). The ITS gene serves as a primary barcode locus as it is easily generated and has the most extensive dataset available, while either Btub, EF-1α or RPB2 provide a useful secondary barcode locus.

Phylogenetic lineages in Pseudocercospora

Pseudocercospora is a large cosmopolitan genus of plant pathogenic fungi that are commonly associated with leaf and fruit spots as well as blights on a wide range of plant hosts. They occur in arid as well as wet environments and in a wide range of climates including cool temperate, sub-tropical and tropical regions. Pseudocercospora is now treated as a genus in its own right, although formerly recognised as either an anamorphic state of Mycosphaerella or having mycosphaerella-like teleomorphs. The aim of this study was to sequence the partial 28S nuclear ribosomal RNA gene of a selected set of isolates to resolve phylogenetic generic limits within the Pseudocercospora complex. From these data, 14 clades are recognised, six of which cluster in Mycosphaerellaceae. Pseudocercospora s. str. represents a distinct clade, sister to Passalora eucalypti, and a clade representing the genera Scolecostigmina, Trochophora and Pallidocercospora gen. nov., taxa formerly accommodated in the Mycosphaerella heimii complex and characterised by smooth, pale brown conidia, as well as the formation of red crystals in agar media. Other clades in Mycosphaerellaceae include Sonderhenia, Microcyclosporella, and Paracercospora. Pseudocercosporella resides in a large clade along with Phloeospora, Miuraea, Cercospora and Septoria. Additional clades represent Dissoconiaceae, Teratosphaeriaceae, Cladosporiaceae, and the genera Xenostigmina, Strelitziana, Cyphellophora and Thedgonia. The genus Phaeomycocentrospora is introduced to accommodate Mycocentrospora cantuariensis, primarily distinguished from Pseudocercospora based on its hyaline hyphae, broad conidiogenous loci and hila. Host specificity was considered for 146 species of Pseudocercospora occurring on 115 host genera from 33 countries. Partial nucleotide sequence data for three gene loci, ITS, EF-1α, and ACT suggest that the majority of these species are host specific. Species identified on the basis of host, symptomatology and general morphology, within the same geographic region, frequently differed phylogenetically, indicating that the application of European and American names to Asian taxa, and vice versa, was often not warranted.

TAXONOMIC NOVELTIES

New genera - Pallidocercospora Crous, Phaeomycocentrospora Crous, H.D. Shin & U. Braun; New species - Cercospora eucommiae Crous, U. Braun & H.D. Shin, Microcyclospora quercina Crous & Verkley, Pseudocercospora ampelopsis Crous, U. Braun & H.D. Shin, Pseudocercospora cercidicola Crous, U. Braun & C. Nakash., Pseudocercospora crispans G.C. Hunter & Crous, Pseudocercospora crocea Crous, U. Braun, G.C. Hunter & H.D. Shin, Pseudocercospora haiweiensis Crous & X. Zhou, Pseudocercospora humulicola Crous, U. Braun & H.D. Shin, Pseudocercospora marginalis G.C. Hunter, Crous, U. Braun & H.D. Shin, Pseudocercospora ocimi-basilici Crous, M.E. Palm & U. Braun, Pseudocercospora plectranthi G.C. Hunter, Crous, U. Braun & H.D. Shin, Pseudocercospora proteae Crous, Pseudocercospora pseudostigmina-platani Crous, U. Braun & H.D. Shin, Pseudocercospora pyracanthigena Crous, U. Braun & H.D. Shin, Pseudocercospora ravenalicola G.C. Hunter & Crous, Pseudocercospora rhamnellae G.C. Hunter, H.D. Shin, U. Braun & Crous, Pseudocercospora rhododendri-indici Crous, U. Braun & H.D. Shin, Pseudocercospora tibouchinigena Crous & U. Braun, Pseudocercospora xanthocercidis Crous, U. Braun & A. Wood, Pseudocercosporella koreana Crous, U. Braun & H.D. Shin; New combinations - Pallidocercospora acaciigena (Crous & M.J. Wingf.) Crous & M.J. Wingf., Pallidocercospora crystallina (Crous & M.J. Wingf.) Crous & M.J. Wingf., Pallidocercospora heimii (Crous) Crous, Pallidocercospora heimioides (Crous & M.J. Wingf.) Crous & M.J. Wingf., Pallidocercospora holualoana (Crous, Joanne E. Taylor & M.E. Palm) Crous, Pallidocercospora konae (Crous, Joanne E. Taylor & M.E. Palm) Crous, Pallidoocercospora irregulariramosa (Crous & M.J. Wingf.) Crous & M.J. Wingf., Phaeomycocentrospora cantuariensis (E.S. Salmon & Wormald) Crous, H.D. Shin & U. Braun, Pseudocercospora hakeae (U. Braun & Crous) U. Braun & Crous, Pseudocercospora leucadendri (Cooke) U. Braun & Crous, Pseudocercospora snelliana (Reichert) U. Braun, H.D. Shin, C. Nakash. & Crous, Pseudocercosporella chaenomelis (Y. Suto) C. Nakash., Crous, U. Braun & H.D. Shin; Typifications: Epitypifications - Pseudocercospora angolensis (T. Carvalho & O. Mendes) Crous & U. Braun, Pseudocercospora araliae (Henn.) Deighton, Pseudocercospora cercidis-chinensis H.D. Shin & U. Braun, Pseudocercospora corylopsidis (Togashi & Katsuki) C. Nakash. & Tak. Kobay., Pseudocercospora dovyalidis (Chupp & Doidge) Deighton, Pseudocercospora fukuokaensis (Chupp) X.J. Liu & Y.L. Guo, Pseudocercospora humuli (Hori) Y.L. Guo & X.J. Liu, Pseudocercospora kiggelariae (Syd.) Crous & U. Braun, Pseudocercospora lyoniae (Katsuki & Tak. Kobay.) Deighton, Pseudocercospora lythri H.D. Shin & U. Braun, Pseudocercospora sambucigena U. Braun, Crous & K. Schub., Pseudocercospora stephanandrae (Tak. Kobay. & H. Horie) C. Nakash. & Tak. Kobay., Pseudocercospora viburnigena U. Braun & Crous, Pseudocercosporella chaenomelis (Y. Suto) C. Nakash., Crous, U. Braun & H.D. Shin, Xenostigmina zilleri (A. Funk) Crous; Lectotypification - Pseudocercospora ocimicola (Petr. & Cif.) Deighton; Neotypifications - Pseudocercospora kiggelariae (Syd.) Crous & U. Braun, Pseudocercospora lonicericola (W. Yamam.) Deighton, Pseudocercospora zelkovae (Hori) X.J. Liu & Y.L. Guo.