Neopestalotiopsis zakeelii Prasannath, Akinsanmi & R. G. Shivas

Fallahi, Maryam, Armand, Alireza, Al-Otibi, Fatimah, Hyde, Kevin D. & Jayawardena, Ruvishika S., 2025, Pathogenic fungi (Sordariomycetes) associated with annual and perennial crops in Northern Thailand, MycoKeys 117, pp. 191-265 : 191-265

Neopestalotiopsis zakeelii Prasannath, Akinsanmi & R. G. Shivas , Journal of Fungi 7: 12 (2021)

Fig. 30

Description.

Pathogenic to persimmon ( Diospyros ehretioides ) and causes dark brown leaf spots. Sexual morph not observed. Conidiomata pycnidial on PDA, scattered, aggregated, immersed, or semi-immersed, with black conidial mass. Conidiophores reduced to conidiogenous cells. Conidiogenous cells hyaline, smooth, ampulliform to lageniform, 4–15 × 3–5 μm. Conidia medium to dark brown, fusiform to ellipsoidal, straight or curved, 4 - septate, 20–30 × 5–8 μm (mean = 22 × 6 μm, n = 30); basal cell conical, 2–4 μm long (mean = 3 μm), hyaline, smooth, thin-walled; basal appendage filiform, unbranched, centric, 2–4 μm long; three median cells doliiform, 11–17.5 μm (mean = 16 μm), smooth, septa darker than the rest of the cell (second cell from basal cell olivaceous to brown, 3.5–7 μm long (mean = 5.5 μm); third cell brown to dark brown, 3.5–7 μm long (mean = 5.3 μm); fourth cell medium brown, 4–7 μm long (mean = 5.5 μm )); apical cell conical to subcylindrical, 2–5 μm long (mean = 3 μm), hyaline, smooth, thin-walled, with 2–3 tubular apical appendages (mostly 2), unbranched, filiform, 6–21.5 μm long (mean = 12 μm). Basal appendage single, unbranched, tubular, centric, 2–8 μm long.

Culture characteristics.

Colonies on PDA reach 55–65 mm in diameter after 7 days of growth at 25 ° C under 12 h daylight, cottony, with abundant white aerial mycelium. Upper view white and the reverse primrose. Yellow pigment and black fruiting bodies appear with age on the agar medium.

Material examined.

Thailand • Chiang Rai Province, Mueang Chiang Rai District, Doi Hang , leaf spots on persimmon ( Diospyros ehretioides ), February 2023, Maryam Fallahi, dried culture MF 54-1 ( MFLU 24-0256 ), living culture MFLUCC 24-0252 .

Notes.

Strain MFLUCC 24-0252 clustered in the same subclade with the strains of Neopestalotiopsis zakeelii ( BRIP 72282 a, holotype) with 85 % ML bootstrap support and 0.95 BYPP (Fig. 28 ). The base pair differences between N. zakeelii strains MFLUCC 24-0252 and BRIP 72282 a revealed a 0.46 % (2 / 435 bp) nucleotide difference in tef and tub 2 and no differences in ITS. Neopestalotiopsis zakeelii ( MFLUCC 24-0252 ) is similar to the holotype of N. zakeelii in morphology. It was first reported from flower blight of Macadamia integrifolia in Australia ( Prasannath et al. 2021). This study provides a new host and geographical record for N. zakeelii on persimmon in Thailand.

Figures

Figure 28. Phylogenetic tree of the Neopestalotiopsis ssp. generated by Bayes analysis of combined ITS, tef 1, and tub 2 sequence data. The ultrafast maximum likelihood (ML) bootstrap support values ≥ 50 % (BT) and Bayesian posterior probabilities ≥ 0.95 (BYPP) are shown, respectively, near the nodes. The ex-type strains are marked with an asterisk. The tree is rooted in Pestalotiopsis spathulate (CBS 356 86) and Pestalotiopsis diversiseta (MFLUCC 12 0287).

Figure 30. Neopestalotiopsis zakeelii (MFLUCC 24-0252) a leaf spot on persimmon b front, and c back views of the culture on PDA after 60 days at 25 ° C d conidiomata e – g conidiophore, and conidiogenous cells h – k conidia. Scale bars: 20 μm.