Six DNA regions were evaluated as potential DNA barcodes for Fungi, the second largest kingdom of eukaryotic life, by a multinational, multilaboratory consortium. The region of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 used as the animal barcode was excluded as a potential marker, because it is difficult to amplify in fungi, often includes large introns, and can be insufficiently variable. Three subunits from the nuclear ribosomal RNA cistron were compared together with regions of three representative proteincoding genes (largest subunit of RNA polymerase II, second largest subunit of RNA polymerase II, and minichromosome maintenance protein). Although the protein-coding gene regions often had a higher percent of correct identification compared with ribosomal markers, low PCR amplification and sequencing success eliminated them as candidates for a universal fungal barcode. Among the regions of the ribosomal cistron, the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region has the highest probability of successful identification for the broadest range of fungi, with the most clearly defined barcode gap between inter-and intraspecific variation. The nuclear ribosomal large subunit, a popular phylogenetic marker in certain groups, had superior species resolution in some taxonomic groups, such as the early diverging lineages and the ascomycete yeasts, but was otherwise slightly inferior to the ITS. The nuclear ribosomal small subunit has poor species-level resolution in fungi. ITS will be formally proposed for adoption as the primary fungal barcode marker to the Consortium for the Barcode of Life, with the possibility that supplementary barcodes may be developed for particular narrowly circumscribed taxonomic groups.DNA barcoding | fungal biodiversity T he absence of a universally accepted DNA barcode for Fungi, the second most speciose eukaryotic kingdom (1, 2), is a serious limitation for multitaxon ecological and biodiversity studies. DNA barcoding uses standardized 500-to 800-bp sequences to identify species of all eukaryotic kingdoms using primers that are applicable for the broadest possible taxonomic group. Reference barcodes must be derived from expertly identified vouchers deposited in biological collections with online metadata and validated by available online sequence chromatograms. Interspecific variation should exceed intraspecific variation (the barcode gap), and barcoding is optimal when a sequence is constant and unique to one species (3, 4). Ideally, the barcode locus would be the same for all kingdoms. A region of the mitochondrial gene encoding the cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (CO1) is the barcode for animals (3, 4) and the default marker adopted by the Consortium for the Barcode of Life for all groups of organisms, including fungi (5). In Oomycota, part of the kingdom Stramenopila historically studied by mycologists, the de facto barcode internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region is suitable for identification, but the default CO1 marker is more reliable in a few clades of closely related species (6)...

This article is the 14th in the Fungal Diversity Notes series, wherein we report 98 taxa distributed in two phyla, seven classes, 26 orders and 50 families which are described and illustrated. Taxa in this study were collected from Australia, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Chile, China, Cyprus, Egypt, France, French Guiana, India, Indonesia, Italy, Laos, Mexico, Russia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam. There are 59 new taxa, 39 new hosts and new geographical distributions with one new combination. The 59 new species comprise Angustimassarina kunmingense , Asterina lopi , Asterina brigadeirensis , Bartalinia bidenticola , Bartalinia caryotae , Buellia pruinocalcarea , Coltricia insularis , Colletotrichum flexuosum , Colletotrichum thasutense , Coniochaeta caraganae , Coniothyrium yuccicola , Dematipyriforma aquatic , Dematipyriforma globispora , Dematipyriforma nilotica , Distoseptispora bambusicola , Fulvifomes jawadhuvensis , Fulvifomes malaiyanurensis , Fulvifomes thiruvannamalaiensis , Fusarium purpurea , Gerronema atrovirens , Gerronema flavum , Gerronema keralense , Gerronema kuruvense , Grammothele taiwanensis , Hongkongmyces changchunensis , Hypoxylon inaequale , Kirschsteiniothelia acutisporum , Kirschsteiniothelia crustaceum , Kirschsteiniothelia extensum , Kirschsteiniothelia septemseptatum , Kirschsteiniothelia spatiosum , Lecanora immersocalcarea , Lepiota subthailandica , Lindgomyces guizhouensis , Marthe asmius pallidoaurantiacus , Marasmius tangerinus , Neovaginatispora mangiferae , Pararamichloridium aquisubtropicum , Pestalotiopsis piraubensis , Phacidium chinaum , ...

Periconia is a polyphyletic and asexual morphic genus within the family Periconiaceae (Pleosporales). The genus is characterized by a pale to dark brown stipe with an apical conidial head and ellipsoidal to oblong conidia. Species of Periconia are widely distributed throughout the world in various hosts, while most species are isolated from graminaceous plants. During our investigations of microfungal in Sichuan Province, China, 26 Periconia isolates were collected from a wide variety of graminaceous plants. These isolates corresponded to 11 species based on the examination of morphology and multi-locus phylogenetic analysis (SSU, ITS, LSU, TEF1, RPB2). This includes six new species (P. chengduensis, P. cynodontis, P. festucae, P. imperatae, P. penniseti, and P. spodiopogonis) and five new records (P. byssoides, P. chimonanthi, P. cookie, P. pseudobyssoides, and P. verrucosa). A comprehensive description and illustrations of the new species are provided and discussed with comparable taxa. These discoveries expand our knowledge of the species diversity of Periconia taxa in graminaceous plants in China.

During an assessment of biodiversity of ascomycetous fungi in the South China Karst area in Guizhou Province, China, a novel species of Prosthemium was collected. We isolated the taxon and sequenced the ITS, LSU and TUB gene regions. The novel taxon is characterized by immersed, globose or depressed globose ascomata, flattened, papillate ostioles, cellular pseudoparaphyses, broadly cylindrical to broadly cylindro-clavate asci, narrowly oblong, muriform ascospores and a prosthemium-like asexual morph produced in culture. The result of phylogenetic analysis based on combined ITS, LSU and TUB sequence data indicate that the species belongs to the genus Prosthemium and formed a separate clade within the genus. The new fungus is most similar to Prosthemium betulinum, Pr. intermedium, Pr. neobetulinum and Pr. stellare, from which it differs in the overall smaller size and morphology of sexual morph and asexual morph, as well as phylogeny. Thus new fungus is described and illustrated herein as Prosthemium sinense.

Garden geranium (Pelargonium × hortorum L.H. Bailey, Geraniaceae) is a popular ornamental plant cultivated worldwide, whose extracts are used in cosmetics and medicine (Jugulam et al. 2001). On the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China campus (Chengdu, China), leaf blight on the garden geranium was observed during April-September 2021. The average disease incidence was around 40%–50%, which caused severe loss of ornamental value. Initially, circular, brown necrotic areas appear on the margin of the leaves. In the advanced stage of infection, lesions may enlarge rapidly, become irregular in shape, with the central portion of the lesion falling out and defoliation. To isolate the pathogen, symptomatic tissues obtained from diseased leaves were surface-sterilized for 1 min with 0.3% NaClO, rinsed in sterile distilled water, and plated onto potato dextrose agar (PDA). The inoculated plates were incubated for 7 days at 25°C. Successively, pure cultures were obtained by transferring hyphal tips to new PDA plates. A total of 20 isolates were obtained across 25 garden geranium plants investigated. The colonies on the PDA plates reached a diameter of 60–70 mm after 10 days at 25°C, spreading with a regular margin, aerial mycelium white, and black mycelia on the undersides cottony and solitary and globose pycnidia were produced after ten days. Conidia were either cylindrical or short cylindrical, hyaline 4˗11 μm × 2˗5 μm. These morphologies corresponded to those of Stagonosporopsis species. Sequence data for the 28S nrDNA, the internal transcribed spacer, β-tubulin, and RNA polymerase II subunit (White et al. 1990, Liu et al. 1999, Aveskamp et al. 2009) were obtained randomly for one of the pure isolates (P1-L4-1-L1-1), which resulted in the GenBank accession numbers ON667723, ON667722, ON677462, and ON677463, respectively. The RAxML analysis (Stamatakis 2014) of the combined sequence data of the isolate P1-L4-1-L1-1 and the reference sequences obtained from GenBank demonstrated that the isolate P1-L4-1-L1-1 formed a strongly support clade with the type isolates (C5-5) of Stagonosporopsis citrulli M.T. Brewer & J.E. Stewart, which has been found on cucurbits (Stewart et al. 2015). The procedure for Koch’s postulates was followed to confirm fungal pathogenicity using 4-day-old mycelial disks. A total of 15 same-aged healthy leaves were divided into three groups, and each group received a different treatment. Artificial wounds were created on one group of leaves using a sterile pin, and a 5-mm mycelial plug of the fungus was placed on the injured tissues. Mycelial plugs were also placed on the surfaces of the sets of unwounded leaves. The remaining leaves were maintained as control and inoculated with sterile PDA plugs. The test was repeated three times. Both the wounded and non-wounded leaves exhibited symptoms after 4–9 days identical to those observed in the field. The control group remained asymptomatic, and the morphology of the fungus reisolated from the inoculated leaves was similar to that of S. citrulli. The phylogeny, together with morphological identification and inoculation results, confirmed the identity of the pathogen on garden geranium as S. citrulli. To our knowledge, this is the first report of leaf spot caused by S. citrulli in the garden geranium in the world. Our results may help to provide crucial information for studying the epidemiology and management of this disease.