Rhodoveronaea querci Y. Y. Yang & Q. Zhao, 2025

Yang, Yan-Yan, Bhunjun, Chitrabhanu S., Thiyagaraja, Vinodhini, Kakumyan, Pattana, Bhat, Darbhe J., Al-Otibi, Fatima, Li, Tai-Shun, Zhao, Qi & Hyde, Kevin D., 2025, Morphological and phylogenetic evaluation of a new species of Rhodoveronaea (Rhamphoriaceae, Rhamphoriales) associated with Quercus fabrei (Fagales) in Yunnan Province, China, Biodiversity Data Journal 13, pp. e 154654-e 154654 : e154654-

Rhodoveronaea querci Y. Y. Yang & Q. Zhao sp. nov.

Materials

Type status: Holotype. Occurrence: catalogNumber: HKAS 145561 ; occurrenceRemarks: on dead sticks of Quercus fabrei ; recordNumber: YYY 79; recordedBy: Y. Y. Yang; occurrenceID: E2970614-75ED-5C09-9C9D-0208B4B658C1; Taxon: kingdom: Fungi; phylum: Ascomycota; class: Sordariomycetes; order: Rhamphoriales ; family: Rhamphoriaceae ; genus: Rhodoveronaea ; Location: country: China; stateProvince: Yunnan; county: Kunming; Identification: identifiedBy: Y. Y. Yang; Event: year: 2021; month: October; day: 6; habitat: terrestrial; Record Level: institutionCode: Herbarium of Kunming Institute of Botany, Academia Sinica (KUN-HKAS)

Description

Saprobic on dead sticks of Quercus fabrei . Sexual morph: Undetermined. Asexual morph: Hyphomycetous. Colonies on natural substrate superficial, effuse, hairy, scattered or aggregated, with yellowish-brown conidial masses at the apex. Mycelium mostly immersed, partly superficial, composed of filamentous, septate, branched, brown to pale brown hyphae. Conidiophores 85–129 µm × 3–4.5 µm (x ̅ = 101 × 3.5 µm, n = 15), macronematous, mononematous, erect, simple, cylindrical, straight or slightly flexuous, solitary, septate, unbranched, dark-brown, pale brown towards fertile apex, slightly rough-walled, often percurrently proliferating from cut ends. Conidiogenous cells polyblastic, integrated, indeterminate, terminal, sympodial, pale brown, cylindrical below, apically protuberant, recurved with conspicuous conidiogenous loci. Conidia 8–14 µm × 3–5.5 µm (x ̅ = 11 × 4 µm, n = 30), acropleurogenous, ellipsoidal to narrowly obovoid, apically rounded, with a flat basal scar, pale brown, 1–2 - septate, mostly 1 - septate, slightly constricted at the central septum, guttulate, smooth-walled. Conidial secession schizolytic.

Culture characteristics: Conidia germinating on PDA within 24 h. Colonies slow growing on PDA media, reaching 2.5 cm after 2 months at 18 ℃, offwhite, irregularly-shaped with obvious concentric rings, raised, pleated, with irregular edges, with sparse mycelia; reverse greige, with white mycelial ring.

Diagnosis

Similar to R. hainanensis in conidial size and morphology, but differing in the thickness of the conidiophore wall, as well as the septation and guttulation of the conidia.

Etymology

The species epithet " querci " refers to the host genus.

Notes

In the phylogenetic analyses, our species formed a sister clade to R. aquatica , R. hainanensis and R. nieuwwulvenica (Fig. 2 ). Pairwise comparisons revealed that R. querci differs from R. aquatica by 23 / 506 bp (4.5 %) in the ITS sequences, 6 / 695 bp (0.8 %) in the LSU sequences, 0 / 712 bp (0 %) in the SSU sequences and 36 / 776 bp (4.6 %) in the tef 1 - α sequences. Furthermore, R. querci differs from R. hainanensis by 18 / 460 bp (3.9 %) in the ITS sequences and 12 / 721 bp (1.7 %) in the LSU sequences. Additionally, R. querci differs from R. nieuwwulvenica by 23 / 490 bp (4.7 %) in the ITS sequences, 9 / 721 bp (1.2 %) in the LSU sequences and 38 / 744 bp (5.1 %) in the tef 1 - α sequences. Morphologically (Table 2 ), Rhodoveronaea querci resembles R. aquatica , R. hainanensis and R. nieuwwulvenica by having cylindrical, septate, straight or flexuous, red-brown conidiophores, as well as ellipsoid to obovoid, pale brown conidia ( Luo et al. 2019, Hyde et al. 2023 a, Crous et al. 2023). However, R. querci can be distinguished from R. aquatica by its shorter conidiophores (85–129 µm × 3–4.5 µm vs. 182–310 × 9–13 µm) and smaller conidia (8–14 µm × 3–5.5 µm vs. 23–27 × 9–11 µm) ( Luo et al. 2019). In contrast to R. hainanensis , R. querci possesses integrated conidiogenous cells and conidia with guttulate cells and fewer septa （ 1–2 - septate vs. 1–3 - septate) ( Hyde et al. 2023 a). Furthermore, the difference between R. querci and R. nieuwwulvenica is that R. nieuwwulvenica has flexuous, shorter conidiophores (20–60 × 4–5 µm vs. 85–129 µm × 3–4.5 µm) and more septate conidia (3 - septate vs. 1–2 - septate) ( Crous et al. 2023). We therefore introduce this strain as a new species following the guidelines of Chethana et al. (2021).

Figures

Figure 2. Rhodoveronaea querci (HKAS 145561, holotype). a Host substrate; b, c Colonies on the substrate; d, e Conidiophores and conidiogenous cells bearing conidia; f, g Conidiogenous cells bearing conidia. Note the percurrent proliferation of conidiophores from cut-ends in e-g; h-m Conidia; n Germinated conidium; o, p Upper and lower view of culture on PDA media after incubation for 60 days. Scale bars: d – e, g, n = 30 μm, f = 20 μm, h – m = 10 μm.