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

Fig. 25

Etymology.

Name refers to roots of Zoysia japonica.

Description.

Poaceascoma zoysiiradicicola differs from its closest phylogenetic neighbour P. halophilum ( MFLUCC 15-0949 ) by unique fixed alleles in two loci: LSU positions 2 (T), 48 (T), 49 (T), 52 (indel), 144 (T), 359 (T), 458 (T), 655 (T), 730 (indel), 764 (indel), 866 (A); SSU positions 171 (indel), 969 (indel).

Culture characteristics.

Colony reaching 44.23 mm diam. on PDA after 7 days in darkness at 25 ° C, front side reseda green, reverse sides crineous to dark, margin white on both sides (Fig. 25 a ).

Type.

Korea • South Jeolla Province, Hwasun , isolated from roots of Zoysia japonica , October 2020, H. Liu and H. Sang, holotype CMML 20-50 H (permanently preserved in a metabolically inactive state), ex-holotype CMML 20-50 , ex-isotype CMML 20-51 .

Notes.

No sporulation was found on synthetic media in this fungus. However, chlamydospore-like structures in hyphae were observed on MEA after two weeks, 4–6.5 μm in width (Fig. 25 b – g ). In phylogenetic analysis, based on multi-loci of ITS, LSU, SSU and TEF 1, strains CMML 20-50 and CMML 20-51 formed a separate clade sister to ex-type strain of P. halophilum ( MFLUCC 15-0949 ) (Fig. 26 ). Based on nucleotide sequences of LSU and SSU, ex-holotype strain of P. zoysiiradicicola ( CMML 20-50 ) was different with the ex-type strain of P. halophilum ( MFLUCC 15-0949 ): LSU sequence identities = 855 / 863 (99.07 %), gaps = 3; SSU sequence identities = 1038 / 1038 (100 %), gaps = 2. Poaceascoma halophilum was found as a saprophyte on a decaying bamboo stick and its asexual morph is undetermined ( Hyde et al. 2017). In terms of culture characteristics, P. halophilum differs from P. zoysiiradicicola in the slower vegetative growth rate on PDA ( Hyde et al. 2017). Therefore, P. zoysiiradicicola sp. nov. was introduced in this study to accommodate CMML 20-50 and CMML 20-51 in the genus Poaceascoma .

Figures

Figure 25. Poaceascoma zoysiiradicicola sp. nov. (CMML 20-50) a front and reverse sides of colony on PDA b – g chlamydospore-like structures on MEA. Scale bars: 10 μm.

Figure 26. Maximum Likelihood phylogenetic tree based on combined sequences of ITS, LSU, SSU and TEF 1 from Poaceascoma species using Maximum Likelihood method. Bootstrap values (BS) and Bayesian posterior probabilities (PP) are given at the nodes (BS / PP). Strains obtained from this study are in bold blue. Ex-type isolates are marked with T. Corynespora torulosa (CBS 136419) was used as the outgroup taxon.