Synopsis of Leptosphaeriaceae and Introduction of Three New Taxa and One New Record from China

Abstract

Leptosphaeriaceae, a diverse family in the order Pleosporales, is remarkable for its scleroplectenchymatous or plectenchymatous peridium cells. Four Leptosphaeriaceae species were discovered and studied during the investigation of saprobic fungi from plant substrates in China. Novel taxa were defined using multiloci phylogenetic analyses and are supported by morphology. Based on maximum likelihood (ML) and Bayesian inference (BI) analyses, these isolates represent three novel taxa and one new record within Leptosphaeriaceae. A new genus, Angularia, is introduced to accommodate Angularia xanthoceratis, with a synopsis chart for 15 genera in Leptosphaeriaceae. This study also revealed a new species, Plenodomus changchunensis, and a new record of Alternariaster centaureae-diffusae. These species add to the increasing number of fungi known from China.

Morphological and Phylogenetic Characterisations Reveal Four New Species in Leptosphaeriaceae (Pleosporales, Dothideomycetes)

“…The newly obtained sequences (SSU, LSU, ITS, tub 2, and rpb 2) were subjected to BLASTn searches against the GenBank database ( ) (accessed on 29 March 2023) to identify closely related taxa. Reference isolates and accessions were obtained from recent studies [ 6 , 17 , 23 , 39 , 40 , 41 ] and downloaded from GenBank. Single-locus sequence datasets were aligned using MAFFT v. 7.505 [ 42 ], trimmed using TrimAl v. 1.3 [ 43 ] via the web server Phylemon2 ( ) (accessed on 29 March 2023), and concatenated using BioEdit v. 7.0.5.2 [ 44 ].…”

“…Leptosphaeriaceae , introduced by Barr [ 1 ], are widely distributed and exhibit diverse lifestyles, including fungicolous, epiphytic, parasitic, saprobic, and hemibiotrophic on herbaceous and woody plants [ 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 ]. For example, Leptosphaeria species are saprobes, plant pathogens, or hemibiotrophs on cultivated, wild herbaceous, and woody plants [ 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 ].…”

“…The sexual morphs of Leptosphaeriaceae species are characterised by immersed to superficial and conical or globose ascomata, a thick peridium with scleroplectenchymatous or plectenchymatous cells, cylindrical to oblong asci, and hyaline to brown ascospores that are transversely septate [ 2 , 3 , 6 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 ]. In addition, asexual morphs are coelomycetous or hyphomycetous [ 13 , 16 , 17 ].…”

“…Based on the multilocus phylogeny of the combined LSU, SSU, and ITS datasets, seven other genera, viz. Angularia, Chaetoplea [ 21 ], Ochraceocephala [ 22 ], Praeclarispora [ 23 ], Heterosporicola , Querciphoma , and Sclerenchymomyces [ 6 ], have been described in Leptosphaeriaceae . The Index Fungorum [ 24 ] listed 1682 Leptosphaeria species (accessed on 29 March 2023) epithets, and many of them have been synonymised under other genera.…”

“…The members of Paraleptosphaeria have been reported as saprobic, fungicolous, or pathogenic [ 2 , 4 , 20 ], and nine species epithets are listed in the Index Fungorum [ 24 ] (accessed on 29 March 2023). In addition, Plenodomus has often been reported as saprobic or pathogenic on Asteraceae , Fabaceae , Lamiaceae , Liliaceae, and Poaceae [ 2 , 6 , 13 , 25 , 26 ] and 101 records are listed in the Index Fungorum [ 24 ] (accessed on 29 March 2023).…”