Fine Identification and Classification of a Novel Beneficial Talaromyces Fungal Species from Masson Pine Rhizosphere Soil

Abstract

Rhizosphere fungi have the beneficial functions of promoting plant growth and protecting plants from pests and pathogens. In our preliminary study, rhizosphere fungus JP-NJ4 was obtained from the soil rhizosphere of Pinus massoniana and selected for further analyses to confirm its functions of phosphate solubilization and plant growth promotion. In order to comprehensively investigate the function of this strain, it is necessary to ascertain its taxonomic position. With the help of genealogical concordance phylogenetic species recognition (GCPSR) using five genes/regions (ITS, BenA, CaM, RPB1, and RPB2) as well as macro-morphological and micro-morphological characters, we accurately determined the classification status of strain JP-NJ4. The concatenated phylogenies of five (or four) gene regions and single gene phylogenetic trees (ITS, BenA, CaM, RPB1, and RPB2 genes) all show that strain JP-NJ4 clustered together with Talaromyces brevis and Talaromyces liani, but differ markedly in the genetic distance (in BenA gene) from type strain and multiple collections of T. brevis and T. liani. The morphology of JP-NJ4 largely matches the characteristics of genes Talaromyces, and the rich and specific morphological information provided by its colonies was different from that of T. brevis and T. liani. In addition, strain JP-NJ4 could produce reduced conidiophores consisting of solitary phialides. From molecular and phenotypic data, strain JP-NJ4 was identified as a putative novel Talaromyces fungal species, designated T. nanjingensis.

Molecular and biological characterization of a novel partitivirus from Talaromyces pinophilus

“…Talaromyces spp. are ubiquitous worldwide and can be isolated from soil and numerous other sources including indoor air, dust, litter, plants, seeds, pollen, and stingless bee nests ( Sun et al, 2022 ). In this investigation we report the first documentation and characterisation of a novel mycovirus from T. pinophilus which comprises three genomic dsRNA segments and is associated with the presence of 35 nm isometric VLPs.…”

Analysis of Whole-Genome facilitates rapid and precise identification of fungal species

“…The universal ITS barcode is ineffective in distinguishing closely related species due to its insufficient variability ( Schoch et al, 2012 ; Sun et al, 2022 ), as evidenced by the identical ITS sequences observed in species A. flavus and A. oryzae ( Supplementary Figure S3 ). Utilizing the published whole genomes of A. flavus ( Kjærbølling et al, 2020 ) and A. oryzae ( Machida et al, 2005 ), bioinformatic analysis revealed 83,191 specific Targets in A. flavus .…”

Two Novel Species of Talaromyces Discovered in a Karst Cave in the Satun UNESCO Global Geopark of Southern Thailand

“…phuphaphetensis and T. satunensis from other species in the section. Although the RPB2 gene is formally accepted as a potential molecular locus for identifying Talaromyces species, it is often difficult to amplify the targeted DNA region [ 23 , 24 , 25 ]. Unfortunately, this study did not obtain RPB2 sequence data from T .…”