Phyllosticta wuzhishanensis M. Y. Zhang, Z. X. Zhang & X. G. Zhang, 2025

Zhang, Meng-Yuan, Zhang, Zhao-Xue, Li, Du-Hua, Zhang, Xiu-Guo, Xia, Ji-Wen & Li, Zhuang, 2025, Morphological and phylogenetic analysis reveal three new species Phyllosticta (Phyllostictaceae, Botryosphaeriales) in China, MycoKeys 118, pp. 35-54 : 35-54

Phyllosticta wuzhishanensis M. Y. Zhang, Z. X. Zhang & X. G. Zhang sp. nov.

Fig. 5

Etymology.

The epithet “ wuzhishanensis ” pertains to Wuzhishan National Nature Reserve, where the type was collected.

Type.

China • Hainan Province, Wuzhishan National Nature Reserve , on saprophytic (dead leaves) leaves, 28 March 2024, M. Y. Zhang (holotype HSAUP 7814 ), ex-type living culture CGMCC 3.28670 .

Description.

Endophytic on saprophytic (dead leaves) leaves. Sexual morph: Not observed. Asexual morph: Conidiomata pycnidial, mostly aggregated in clusters, black, erumpent. In PDA culture, exuding colorless to opaque conidial masses within 12 days or longer. Pycnidial walls multilayered, textura angularis, brown, inner walls of hyaline. Conidiophores indistinct, often reduced to conidiogenous cells. Conidiogenous cells 6.5–14.5 × 3–4 μm, subcylindrical, ampulliform, hyaline, smooth. Conidia 5.5–10 × 3.8–8.6 μm (L / W 1.27 –1.83), ovoid, ampulliform, ellipsoidal to subglobose, hyaline, aseptate, thin and smooth walled, multi-guttulate, or with a single large central guttule, surrounded by a mucilaginous sheath. Sheath 1.6–2 μm thick, thicker on both sides, and bearing a hyaline, apical mucoid appendage. Appendages 10–13 × 1.2–1.5 μm, flexible, unbranched, tapering towards an acutely rounded tip. Spermatia 6.3–8.2 × 1–1.5 μm, occurring in conidioma with conidia, hyaline, smooth, guttulate to granular, bacilliform.

Culture characteristics.

Colonies on PDA 17–21 mm in diameter after 14 days at 25 ° C in darkness, with a growth rate of 1.2–1.5 mm / day, undulate at edge, black on obverse and reverse.

Additional specimen examined.

China • Hainan Province: Wuzhishan National Nature Reserve , on saprophytic (dead leaves) leaves, 28 March 2024, M. Y. Zhang ( HSAUP 7810 ), living culture SAUCC 7810–1 .

Notes.

Phyllosticta wuzhishanensis is closely related to P. aspidistricola ( NBRC 102244 ) based on DNA sequence data in BLAST searches and phylogenetic analysis (Fig. 1 ). However, P. wuzhishanensis differs from P. aspidistricola by 69 nucleotides (40 / 621 in ITS, 0 / 737 in LSU, 0 / 411 in tef 1, 29 / 252 in ACT, and 0 / 727 GPDH). In morphology, they are distinguished by different hosts (dead leaves vs. Aspidistra elatior ) and conidial size (5.5–10 × 3.8–8.6 μm (L / W 1.27 –1.83) in P. wuzhishanensis vs. 9.5–12.5 × 8.5–10 μm (L / W 1.43 –1.63) in P. aspidistricola ) ( Motohashi et al. 2008). Based on morpho-molecular evidence, we establish this fungus as Phyllosticta wuzhishanensis sp. nov.

Figures

Figure 1. Phylogram of the Phyllosticta, inferred from a concatenated alignment of ITS, LSU, tef 1, ACT, and GPDH sequences. Botryosphaeria obtusa (CMW 8232) and B. stevensii (CBS 112553) were used as outgroup taxa. BI posterior probabilities and ML bootstrap support values above 0.90 and 70 % are shown at the first and second positions, respectively. Ex-type cultures are highlighted in bold, while strains obtained in this study are marked in red. Some branches have been shortened for layout optimization, indicated by double diagonal lines with the corresponding reduction factor. The scale bar at the bottom left represents the number of substitutions per site.

Figure 5. Phyllosticta wuzhishanensis (CGMCC 3.28670) a, b colonies (left-above, right-reverse) after 14 d on PDA c conidiomata d – f conidiogenous cells with conidia g, h conidia i spermatia. Scale bars: 10 μm (d – i).