Poaceascoma endophyticum H. Liu & H. Sang, 2025

Liu, Haifeng, Choi, Hyeongju, Paul, Narayan Chandra, Ariyawansa, Hiran A. & Sang, Hyunkyu, 2025, Discovering fungal communities in roots of Zoysia japonica and characterising novel species and their antifungal activities, IMA Fungus 16, pp. e 138479-e 138479 : e138479-

Poaceascoma endophyticum H. Liu & H. Sang sp. nov.

Fig. 23

Etymology.

Name refers to endophyte.

Description.

Poaceascoma endophyticum differs from its closest phylogenetic neighbour, P. halophilum ( MFLUCC 15-0949 ) by unique fixed alleles in two loci: LSU positions 84 (T), 88 (indel), 280 (C), 484 (C), 534 (T), 654 (T), 691 (T), 766 (indel), 800 (indel); SSU position 174 (indel), 972 (indel).

Culture characteristics.

Colony reaching 29.33 mm diam. on PDA after 7 days in darkness at 25 ° C, white ring at the edge, centre brownish, reverse side dark brown with a white edge, mycelia dense (Fig. 23 a ).

Type.

Korea • South Jeolla Province, Hwasun , isolated from roots of Zoysia japonica , October 2020, H. Liu and H. Sang, holotype CMML 20-48 H (permanently preserved in a metabolically inactive state), ex-holotype CMML 20-48 , ex-isotype CMML 20-49 .

Notes.

Strains CMML 20-48 and CMML 20-49 did not sporulate on synthetic media. Only chlamydospore-like structures were observed on MEA after two weeks, mostly elliptic or oval in shape and 5.5–12.5 μm in width (Fig. 23 b – i ). In phylogeny, based on multi-loci of ITS, LSU, SSU and TEF 1, strains CMML 20-48 and CMML 20-49 clustered into a distinct clade, sister to clade comprising ex-type strains of P. halophilum ( MFLUCC 15-0949 ), P. zoysiiradicicola ( CMML 20-50 ) and representative strain CMML 20-51 . Based on nucleotide sequence, ex-holotype strain of P. endophyticum ( CMML 20-48 ) differed from ex-type strain of P. halophilum ( MFLUCC 15-0949 ) in LSU sequence (identities = 830 / 836, 99.28 %). P. endophyticum ( CMML 20-48 ) also differed from P. zoysiiradicicola ( CMML 20-50 and CMML 20-51 ) in three different loci: ITS identities = 523 / 558 (93.73 %), 40 gaps; LSU identities = 828 / 838 (98.81 %); TEF 1 identities = 824 / 849 (97.06 %). According to ( Hyde et al. 2017), colonies of P. halophilum on PDA reaches 20–30 mm diameter after 4 weeks, indicating a slower vegetative growth rate than P. endophyticum . In addition, P. endophyticum differs from P. zoysiiradicicola in producing larger chlamydospore-like structures. Thus, Poaceascoma endophyticum sp. nov. was introduced in this study to accommodate CMML 20-50 and CMML 20-51 in the genus Poaceascoma .

Figures

Figure 23. Poaceascoma endophyticum sp. nov. (CMML 20-48) a front and reverse sides of colony on PDA b – i chlamydospore-like structures on MEA. Scale bars: 10 μm.