Curvularia loliicola Lin Huang, Jia-Mei Zhao & D. W. Li, 2025

Zhao, Jia-Mei, Peng, Chuan-Xu, Zhang, Qiu-Yue, Li, De-Wei & Huang, Lin, 2025, Five novel species of Curvularia (Pleosporales, Pleosporaceae) isolated from turfgrasses, MycoKeys 125, pp. 279-305 : 279-305

Curvularia loliicola Lin Huang, Jia-Mei Zhao & D. W. Li sp. nov.

Fig. 5

Holotype.

China • Jiangsu Province, Nanjing, Xuanwu District, Xuanwu Lake Park , 32 ° 06 ' 62 " N, 118 ° 80 ' 54 " E, isolated from leaf blight of Lolium perenne , 5 June 2024. Holotype : CFCC 72725 is a living specimen being maintained via lyophilisation at the China Forestry Culture Collection Center ( CFCC). Ex-type (XW 9-5 - 1) is maintained at the Forest Pathology Laboratory, Nanjing Forestry University.

Etymology.

The name refers to the genus of the host, Lolium , from which the holotype was collected.

Description.

Asexual morph on PDA: Hyphae 3–5 μm wide, subhyaline to pale brown, thin and verruculose, septate, branched. Conidiophores mononematous, semi- to macronematous, septate, arising singly or frequently in groups, straight to flexuous, geniculate at upper part septate, mostly unbranched, rarely short-branched apically, smooth, pale brown to brown, paler towards the apex, (75 –) 97–155 (– 192) × (4 –) 6–8 (– 11) μm (mean ± SD = 126 ± 29 × 7 ± 1 μm). Conidiogenous cells mono- to polytretic, proliferating sympodially, integrated, terminal or intercalary, subcylindrical to slightly swollen, yellowish-brown, smooth to slightly verruculose, with thickened and darkened scars, (8 –) 11–25 (– 30) × (3 –) 5–7 (– 8) μm (mean ± SD = 18 ± 7 × 6 ± 1 μm). Conidia straight or curved, pale brown to dark golden brown, smooth, fusiform, 2–3 - euseptate, median two cells asymmetrically swollen, median septum thickened, 23–29 (– 32) × (11 –) 12–16 μm (mean ± SD = 26 ± 3 × 14 ± 2 μm); germination mono- or bipolar. Hila 2–3 μm wide, non-protuberant, thickened and darkened. Chlamydospores and microconidia are not observed. Sexual morph not observed.

Culture characteristics.

Colonies on PDA reach 33 mm diam. after 5 days at 25 ° C in the dark. Margins irregular, umbonate with an erose edge, greyish-green, cottony appearance, yellowish on the periphery, flat. The centre of the reverse is greyish-green and the edge is dark yellow. On OA medium, the colonies reach up to 47 mm in diam. The edge is neat, cottony appearance, the colony surface is grey, aerial hyphae are fluffy and reverse is black. On CMA medium, the colonies are cottony and reach 32 mm in diam. The edge is irregular and the centre is black.

Additional materials examined.

China • Jiangsu Province, Nanjing, Xuanwu District, Xuanwu Lake Park , isolated from leaf blight of Lolium perenne , 5 June 2024, Jia-Mei Zhao and Lin Huang, XW 9-5 - 2, XW 9-5 - 3 .

Notes.

Phylogenetically, Curvularia loliicola forms a distinct, strongly supported lineage sister to C. intermedia (Fig. 2 ). Morphologically, C. loliicola resembles C. intermedia in producing 3 - septate conidia, but differs in conidial and conidiophore size and ornamentation. Curvularia intermedia possesses longer conidia (33–37 vs. 23–29 μm in length). In addition, C. intermedia distinctly differs from C. loliicola by its longer conidiophores which can reach up to 800 μm, while the conidiophores of C. loliicola show no basal enlargement and are semi- to macro-nematous, up to 192 μm ( Ahmadpour et al. 2012). Furthermore, it has also been reported that it can cause leaf spots of Cynodon dactylon , blueberries and other plants ( Couch 1995; Li et al. 2019; Cheng et al. 2022; Kong et al. 2024). In addition, the novel species resembles Curvularia graminis Meng Zhang & T. Y. Zhang , described from grass hosts in China, particularly in conidial morphology, where the second and third septa from the base are often darker pigmented. However, C. graminis differs from C. loliicola in having longer conidia (29–46 vs. 23–29 μm, Zhang and Zhang (2007)).

Figures

Figure 2. Phylogenetic relationships of Curvularia strains isolated from turfgrasses and closely-related taxa of Curvularia, based on Maximum Likelihood analyses using concatenated ITS + GAPDH + tef 1 sequences. Numbers above the branches indicate ML bootstrap values (left, ML ≥ 50 %) and Bayesian posterior probabilities (right, BPP ≥ 0.90). T = Ex-type strain.

Figure 5. Curvularia loliicola (XW 9-5 - 1, type). A – C. Colony on PDA (A), OA (B) and CMA (C), respectively in 5 days after incubation at 25 ° C; D. Sporulation on PDA; E – F. Conidiogenous cell and conidiophore; G – K. Conidia, conidiogenous cell and conidiophore; L. Conidia. Scale bars: 100 μm (D); 50 μm (H); 10 μm (E – G, I – L).