Sinodiscula loropetali (T. C. Mu & Jun Z. Qiu) Apurillo, Phukhams., K. D. Hyde & E. B. G. Jones, 2025

Apurillo, Carlo Chris S., Phukhamsakda, Chayanard, Hyde, Kevin D., Thiyagaraja, Vinodhini & Jones, E. B. Gareth, 2025, New fungal genus, three novel species and one new record from mangroves, with reclassification of Melanconiella (Melanconiellaceae) species, MycoKeys 116, pp. 25-52 : 25-52

Sinodiscula loropetali (T. C. Mu & Jun Z. Qiu) Apurillo, Phukhams., K. D. Hyde & E. B. G. Jones comb. nov.

Melanconiella loropetali T. C. Mu & Jun Z. Qiu , Front. Microbiol. 14 (1229705): 3 (2023). Basionym. MycoBank No: 848666.

Description.

Sexual morph: Undetermined. Asexual morph: Descriptions and illustrations refer to Mu et al. (2023).

Notes.

Melanconiella loropetali was introduced in Melanconiella by Mu et al. (2023), isolated from diseased Loropetalum sinense in China. Melanconiella loropetali , Melanconiella camelliae and Melanconiella syzygii , formed a basal clade distinct from other Melanconiella species in Mu et al. (2023). However, only Melanconiella species were used in the analysis, leading to their classification as Melanconiella . We included other genera in Melanconiellaceae in our analysis and M. camelliae , M. loropetali and M. syzygii are phylogenetically distant from Melanconiella . The phylogenetic tree of the combined ITS, LSU, rpb 2 and tef 1 - α sequences showed that Melanconiella loropetali formed a sister clade to Sinodiscula species. Thus, we reclassified M. loropetali as Sinodiscula loropetali . Melanconiella loropetali is similar to Sinodiscula species. It fits the generic description of Sinodiscula , and like other Sinodiscula species, Melanconiella loropetali was isolated as a plant pathogen ( Mu et al. 2023; Guo et al. 2024). Given the similarities in morphology and ecology of M. loropetali and Sinodiscula species, and the well-supported phylogenetic position of Melanconiella loropetali , we reclassify it as Sinodiscula loropetali .