Waitea lakhanpalii S. Rana, and S.K. Singh, 2025

Rana, Shiwali & Singh, Sanjay K., 2025, A new species of Waitea described and illustrated based on morphology and phylogeny from Western Ghats, India, Phytotaxa 700 (3), pp. 269-278 : 272-275

Waitea lakhanpalii S. Rana, and S.K. Singh sp. nov. Figures 1–3 .

MycoBank Number:—MB858006

Holotype:— AMH 10783

Etymology:—This specific epithet is in honour of Professor T.N. Lakhanpal for his extraordinary contribution to Indian Basidiomycota.

Host/Distribution:—Dead wood from Ajara, Kolhapur, India.

Description:— Colonies with orange-red (8A6), 1.2 – 1.7 mm bulbils-like fruiting structures. Mycelium composed of thick, monomitic hyphal system, with clamp connections, lacking branching at right angles, smooth-walled, septate, hyaline, 3.7–10 (x̄ = 6) µm wide. Subhymenial hyphae, convoluted, compact, short, hyaline, smooth-walled, 0.97–4.48 (x̄ = 2.1) µm wide. Cystidia none. Basidia elongated, subcylindric to cylindrical, rarely constricted, 11.1–21.4 × 1.35–2.5 (x̄ = 15.8 × 1.8, n = 30) µm, with mostly one sterigmata, thin and smooth-walled, hyaline. Basidiospores obovoid to fusiform 3.1–6.2 × 1.7–2.6 (x̄ = 4.4 × 2.1, n = 30) µm, Q = 1.5–3.75 (x̄ = 2.2), aseptate, hyaline, smooth to rough-walled, thin-walled.

Colonies growing on PDA reaching 72 mm after 10 days at 25°C, from above yellowish white (4A2), irregular, flat, filamentous, sulcate at centre, from below light yellow (4A4), on RBA reaching 72 mm after 10 days of incubation at 25°C, from front reddish grey (10B2), from reverse dull red (10B3), flat, with filamentous, sparse mycelium, on CDA reaching 83 mm after 10 days at 25°C, from above yellowish grey (4B2), from below pale yellow (4A3), flat, with filamentous mycelium, on V 8 Juice agar reaching 78 mm after 10 days at 25°C, from above orange grey (5B2), flat, with filamentous, sparse mycelium at edges, sulcate at centre, from below clay (5D5), on OMA reaching 84 mm after 10 days at 25°C, from above orange white (5A2), flat, with filamentous, sparse mycelium at edges, sulcate at centre, from below reddish blonde/ brownish orange (5C4), on MEA reaching 85 mm after 10 days at 25°C, from above yellowish white (4A2), flat, with filamentous, sparse mycelium, from below greyish yellow (platinum blonde) (4B3), on CMA reaching 85 mm after 10 days at 25°C, from above yellowish white (4A2), flat, with filamentous, sparse mycelium, forming pale orange (6A3) coloured sclerotia at the centre, from below pale yellow (4A3), on PCA reaching 85 mm after 10 days at 25°C, from above brownish orange (5B3), flat, with filamentous, sparse mycelium, from below golden blonde (5C4).

Sclerotia formed abundantly on PDA after three weeks, irregular, clumped, in agar, rarely aerial, rust brown (6E8), 0.4–0.8 mm.

Known distribution:—Ajara, Kolhapur, Maharashtra, India.

Material examined:— INDIA, Maharashtra, Kolhapur, Ajara, dead wood, S.K. Singh, 14th October 2024, Ajara, Kolhapur, AMH 10783 (holotype), deposited in Ajrekar Mycological Herbarium ( AMH), India. Ex-type culture is deposited in the National Fungal Culture Collection of India ( NFCCI 6023). GenBank numbers: ITS = PV253713, nLSU = PV253714, nucSSU = PV253715, and mtSSU = PV253716.

Other specimens examined: INDIA, Maharashtra, Kolhapur, Ajara, dead wood, S.K. Singh, 14 th October 2024, NFCCI 6024 ; GenBank numbers: ITS = PV253719, nLSU = PV253720, nucSSU = PV253721, and mtSSU = PV253729.

Notes: Waitea lakhanpalii resembles W. circinata and W. guianensis in lacking hyphidia and cystidia. Hyphae of W. lakhanpalii lack the subiculum branching at right angles, as is present in Waitea guianensis . Interestingly, Waitea lakhanpalii was found to produce clamps lacking in W. circinata and W. guianensis ( Gruhn & Ghobad‐Nejhad 2020) . Basidiospores of W. circinata and W. arvalis are usually greater than 8 µm in length; however, the basidiospores in case of W. lakhanpalii are less than 6 µm usually, 4.5 µm long ( Gruhn & Ghobad‐Nejhad 2020). The ITS sequence of W. lakhanpalii showed 92.74% identity with Laetisaria arvalis CBS 131.82 revealing significant differences at the molecular level. Thus, W. lakhanpalii significantly differs from the existing hitherto described species in Waitea and confirms novelty to science.

Phylogenetic analysis

The ITS and nLSU gene regions were used to determine this novel isolate identity. The phylogenetic tree in which 26 sequences of species belonging to Waitea and allied genera were compared; the concatenated file contained sequence data with 2,208 columns, 998 distinct patterns, 716 parsimony-informative, 332 singleton sites, 1,160 constant sites. TPM3+F+G4 was chosen as best-fit model according to Bayesian Information Criterion as per ModelFinder. Based on the above model, the phylogeny was carried out using the Maximum Likelihood Method. The rate parameters were A-C: 0.65615, A-G: 2.26003, A-T: 1.00000, C-G: 0.65615, C-T: 2.26003, G-T: 1.00000; base frequencies were A: 0.262, C: 0.215, G: 0.213 and T: 0.310; Gamma shape alpha was 0.564. The log-likelihood of the consensus tree was -12191.126 ( Figure 3 ).

Tree branches were tested based on 1000 ultrafast bootstrap support replicates (UFBoot) and with an SH-like approximate likelihood ratio test (SH-like aLRT) with 1000 replicates. The combined phylogenetic tree generated using ITS and nLSU sequence data nested this isolate in a unique, distinct, and well-supported clade in the genus Waitea supported with good SH-like aLRT, and ultrafast bootstrap (UFBoot).

With the phylogenetic inference based on sequence analyses of multiple gene regions and supported by morphology, Waitea lakhanpalii is identified and documented here as a new species of Waitea to science.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Colonies of Waitea lakhanpalii NFCCI 6023 growing on various media after 10 days. (A, E) OMA; (B, F) V8 Juice agar; (C, G) PDA; (D, H) CDA; (I, M) CMA; (J, N) MEA; (K, O) RBA; (L, P) PCA; (A, B, C, D, I, J, K, L) Front view; (E, F, G, H, M, N, O, P) Reverse view.

FIGURE 2. Morphological characters of Waitea lakhanpalii NFCCI 6023. A. Orange-red coloured bulbils; B. Stereoscopic view of sclerotia growing on agar; C. Magnified view of irregular rust brown coloured sclerotia; D–E. Clamp connexion observed in culture growing on PDA; G–J. Basidia bearing basidiospores; K–M. Basidiospores—Scale bars: A = 1 mm, B = 500 µm, C = 100 µm, D–H, J–L = 10 µm, I = 20 µm, M = 2 µm.

FIGURE 3. Molecular phylogenetic analysis of the new species, Waitea lakhanpalii, generated by maximum-likelihood (ML) method based on combined ITS and nLSU sequence data. The new species, Waitea lakhanpalii, is represented in blue bold.