Paragibellulopsis sinensis H. Pan & Zhi. Y. Zhang, 2025

Pan, Heng, Tong, Shuo-Qiu, Chen, Zeng, Wu, Yun-Jie, Wang, Yi, Tao, Gang & Zhang, Zhi-Yuan, 2025, Two new acremonium-like species, Paragibellulopsis sinensis sp. nov. and Phialoparvum sinense sp. nov. (Sordariomycetes, Ascomycota) from China, MycoKeys 118, pp. 207-224 : 207-224

Paragibellulopsis sinensis H. Pan & Zhi. Y. Zhang sp. nov.

Fig. 2

Type.

China • Beijing, Xishan National Forest Park , 39.97°N, 116.20°E, soil, 4 June 2024, Zhi-Yuan Zhang (holotype HMAS 353383 , dried culture; culture ex-type CGMCC 3.28460 , ibid., ZY 24.001 ) .

Etymology.

The epithet “sinensis” (Lat.) refers to China, where the species was collected.

Description.

Culture characteristics (14 days at 25 ° C): Colony on PDA 35–37 mm diam. white to grey, felty, margin fimbriate; reverse: white to grey. Colony on OA 44–46 mm diam. white to grey, flat, margin entire, aerial mycelia extremely sparse; reverse: white to grey. Colony on SNA 25–30 mm diam. white, floccose, margin irregular; reverse: white.

Mycelium consisting of branched, septate, hyaline, and smooth-walled hyphae, 1–3 μm wide. Conidiophores arising from submerged or superficial hyphae, erect or slanted, simple or poorly branched, often reduced to conidiogenous cells. Conidiogenous cells monophialidic, terminal, lateral, cylindrical, straight or curved, hyaline, smooth-walled, with funnel-shaped collarette and a distinct periclinal thickening at the conidiogenous locus, 20–39 μm long, 1.5–4 μm wide at the base. Conidia aggregated in small, slimy heads, hyaline, cylindrical with tapering ends, straight or slightly curved, smooth-walled, 1 - celled, 5.5–9 × 2–2.5 μm (n = 50). Chlamydospores terminal, lateral, intercalary, single, or, in short, in chains, globose to ellipsoid, cylindrical, hyaline, smooth-walled, 6–10 × 5.5–7 μm (n = 50). Sexual morph unknown.

Geographical distribution.

Beijing, China.

Additional material examined.

China • Beijing, Xishan National Forest Park , 39.97°N, 116.20°E, soil, 4 June 2022, Xin Li, ZY 24.002 .

Notes.

Phylogenetic analysis showed that two new isolates ( CGMCC 3.28460 and ZY 24.002) clustered in a single subclade with high supported value (100 / 1) and were nested in Paragibellulopsis s. str. (Fig. 1 ). Morphologically, Pa. sinensis differs from Pa. chrysanthemi by its short conidiogenous cells (20–39 μm in Pa. sinensis vs. 36–72 μm in Pa. chrysanthemi ) and aseptate and smaller conidia (5.5–9 × 2–2.5 μm in Pa. sinensis vs. 12.5–15.5 × 2.7–3.7 μm in Pa. chrysanthemi ) ( Hirooka et al. 2014). In addition, Pa. sinensis can be distinguished from Pa. chrysanthemi by their low sequence similarities. In a comparison of ITS, LSU, and tef- 1 α nucleotides, Pa. sinensis (ex-type CGMCC 3.28460 ) has 97.2 %, 98.5 %, and 98.8 % similarity in ITS (467 / 480 bp, four gaps), LSU (557 / 565 bp, no gap), and tef- 1 α (432 / 437 bp, no gap), which is different from Pa. bifurcatum (ex-type MAFF 242621 ).

Figures

Figure 1. Phylogenetic tree inferred from a maximum likelihood analysis based on a concatenated alignment of ITS, LSU, rpb 2, and tef- 1 α sequences of 63 strains representing plectosphaerellaceous fungi and outgroups. The ML bootstrap support values (MLBS) above 70 % and Bayesian posterior probabilities (BPP) above 0.70 are given at the nodes (MLBS / BPP). Strains with special status are indicated with a superscript letter after the accession number (T: ex-type, ET: ex-epitype, IT: ex-isotype, NT: ex-neotype). The new species are printed in blue font. The tree is rooted to Monilochaetes infuscans CBS 869.66 and CBS 379.77.

Figure 2. Paragibellulopsis sinensis (from holotype HMAS 353383) a – c upper and reverse views of cultures on PDA, OA, and SNA after 14 days at 25 ° C d – f conidiogenous cells g conidiophores h hyphal coil and conidiogenous cells i, m chlamydospores j, k conidia and chlamydospores l conidia. Scale bars: 10 μm (d – m).