New plectosphaerellaceous species from Dutch garden soil

Abstract

During 2017, the Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute (WI) and the Utrecht University Museum launched a Citizen Science project. Dutch school children collected soil samples from gardens at different localities in the Netherlands, and submitted them to the WI where they were analysed in order to find new fungal species. Around 3000 fungal isolates, including filamentous fungi and yeasts, were cultured, preserved and submitted for DNA sequencing. Through analysis of the ITS and LSU sequences from the obtained isolates, several plectosphaerellaceous fungi were identified for further study. Based on morphological characters and the combined analysis of the ITS and TEF1-α sequences, some isolates were found to represent new species in the genera Phialoparvum, i.e. Ph. maaspleinense and Ph. rietveltiae, and Plectosphaerella, i.e. Pl. hanneae and Pl. verschoorii, which are described and illustrated here.

Diversity of Plectosphaerella within aquatic plants from southwest China, with P. endophytica and P. sichuanensis spp. nov.

“…& Giraldo López in the septa of conidia; both species produce 0–1-septate conidia, and septate conidia are larger than aseptate conidia ( P. verschoorii : 1-septate conidia, 8–11.5 × 2–3 μm; aseptate conidia, 3–8.5 × 2–3 μm), but there are obvious difference in the shape of conidia, P. endophytica was deeply constricted at septa. Besides, the phialides of P. verschoorii are shorter (up to 14 μm) ( Giraldo et al 2019 ).…”

“…Meanwhile, this species has a wide geographic distribution, and it has been reported from England, Italy, Canada, the Netherlands, Egypt etc. ( Raimondo and Carlucci 2018 , Giraldo et al 2019 ). The second species with wide geographic distribution, P. plurivora A.J.L.…”

Citizen science project reveals high diversity in Didymellaceae (Pleosporales, Dothideomycetes)

“…During the present Citizen Science project which focused on Dutch soil fungi, numerous unknown species of filamentous and yeast fungi were described (Crous et al 2017(Crous et al , 2018Groenewald et al 2018;Giraldo et al 2019). As part of the project, we focused on investigating species diversity of Didymellaceae from soil samples obtained in the Netherlands.…”

“…Protocols for the collection and processing of soil samples are described in Groenewald et al (2018) and Giraldo et al (2019). Isolates are maintained in the Johanna Wester-dijk (JW) working collection housed at the WI in Utrecht, the Netherlands.…”

The Genera of Fungi – G6: Arthrographis, Kramasamuha, Melnikomyces, Thysanorea, and Verruconis

“…(2016) . Protocols used for the collection and processing of soil samples are described in Giraldo et al (2012 , 2019) and Groenewald et al (2018) . After 1 wk of incubation on 2 % malt extract agar (MEA) supplemented with penicillin-G and streptomycin, individual colonies were transferred to MEA plates without antibiotics and incubated between 22–24 °C for 7–14 d, in order to obtain axenic cultures.…”