Thysanorea melanica (Hong Y. Su, Udayanga & K. D. Hyde) Hern.-Restr. & Crous

Réblová, Martina, Nekvindová, Jana, Bauchová, Lucie & Hernández-Restrepo, Margarita, 2025, Pleurophragmium parvisporum (Ascomycota): One name, seven stories – a case highlighting the need for verification of strains from public culture collections, IMA Fungus 16, pp. e 173033-e 173033 : e173033-

Thysanorea melanica (Hong Y. Su, Udayanga & K. D. Hyde) Hern.-Restr. & Crous , Fungal Syst. Evol. 6: 18. 2020.

Basionym.

Minimelanolocus melanicus Hong Y. Su, Udayanga & K. D. Hyde , Fungal Biol. 119: 1056. 2015.

Culture characteristics.

On CMD colonies 51–52 mm diam., circular, flat to slightly raised in the centre, margin diffuse, entire, zonate, floccose to velvety, white-beige in the centre, brown to dark brown towards the margin, reverse dark brown to black. On MLA colonies 49–51 mm diam., circular, flat, raised at the centre, margin entire, zonate, lanose to floccose centrally, becoming mucoid and glossy towards the periphery, lanose at the margin, cream to buff in the central region, sharply contrasting with the surrounding, dark grey to blackish mucoid mycelium, olivaceous-grey at the margin, reverse dark olivaceous-grey to black. On OA colonies 47–50 mm diam., circular, flat, margin diffuse, entire, floccose to slightly lanose at the centre, becoming cobwebby towards the periphery, whitish to pale pinkish-buff, surrounded by a wide zone of submerged, dark olivaceous-grey mycelium that diffuses into the agar, paler at the margin, reverse uniformly dark olivaceous-grey to black. On PCA colonies 41–42 mm diam., circular, flat to slightly raised in the centre, margin diffuse, entire, floccose to somewhat lanose, central zone pale pink-brown-buff, surrounded by a dark brown submerged zone, paler at the margin, reverse dark olivaceous-brown to nearly black. Sporulation absent on all media.

Description in culture.

Colonies on PCA effuse. Sexual morph. Not observed. Asexual morph. Mycelium composed of subhyaline to pale brown, septate hyphae, 1.5–3 µm wide. Conidiophores, conidiogenous cells and conidia absent.

Specimen examined.

THE NETHERLANDS • North Holland Province, Wieringermeer Polder, Van Bemmelen Hoeve ; isolated from wheat field soil; May 1966; W. Gams (living culture CBS 862.68 ) .

Habitat and geographical distribution.

Thysanorea melanica was originally described from decaying wood in China ( Liu et al. 2015), with an additional record from wheat field soil in the Netherlands (this study). According to the GlobalFungi database, the species has been detected in 266 environmental samples across three continents. Its ITS dataset is strongly Eurocentric, with ~ 90 % of detections originating from Europe, where it is recorded in multiple countries, showing notable hotspots in Estonia, Switzerland, and Germany. Asia contributes ~ 8 % (driven largely by China), and North America is sparsely represented by ~ 2 %. It is most frequently detected in cropland (50 %), followed by grassland (20 %), forest (17 %), anthropogenic habitats (9.4 %), woodland (2.3 %) and shrubland (0.4 %) biomes. Most records are from soil samples including topsoil and rhizosphere soil (93.2 %), with minor representation in roots and shoots. Occurrences are associated with MAT ~ 8.4 ° C and MAP ~ 749 mm / year.

Notes.

Although strain CBS 862.68 did not sporulate on any of the culture media tested, molecular data enabled its placement in the genus Thysanorea and as conspecific with T. melanica (Fig. 2 ). Thysanorea melanica is nested within a well-supported subclade comprising six additional species. It is characterised by unbranched, dark brown conidiophores bearing terminal and intercalary conidiogenous cells, and by pale brown conidia that are 1–3 - septate when young and 4–6 - septate at maturity, measuring (9 –) 13–37 (– 45) × (2.5 –) 3.5–6.5 (– 8) μm ( Liu et al. 2015).

Thysanorea melanica is a cosmopolitan, soil-dwelling saprobe, occasionally associated with plant tissues, that thrives across a wide range of environments with a preference for temperate to cool-temperate climates with moderate rainfall. Its frequent occurrence in croplands, grasslands, and forests highlights its ecological versatility and ability to persist in both natural and anthropogenic ecosystems. The predominance of records from cropland soils further implies that agricultural activities may have facilitated its spread and persistence, potentially through soil transport or crop-associated dispersal. This hypothesis is consistent with the occurrence of CBS 862.68 strain, which was isolated from wheat field soil.

Figures

Figure 2. Maximum likelihood phylogenetic tree of the Herpotrichiellaceae based on ITS – LSU – tub 2 DNA sequences. Names in bold indicate taxonomic novelties; strains with their accession numbers in bold and highlighted in violet colour were sequenced in this study; a ex-type of Cyphellophora vermispora, d ex-type of Thysanorea aquatica, e ex-type of Veronaea constricta. T, E, IN and AS denote ex-type, ex-epitype, ex-isoneotype, and authentic strains, respectively. Thickened branches indicate support ML BS = 100 % and PP values = 1.0. Branch support of nodes ≥ 70 % ML and ≥ 0.95 PP is indicated above or below branches. A hyphen (–) indicates values lower than 75 % ML BS or 0.95 PP.