Paraconiothyrium nelloi
Paraconiothyrium nelloi W.J. Li, Camporesi & K.D. Hyde, in Liu et al., Fungal Diversity: 10.1007/s13225-015-0324-y, [92] (2015)
Index Fungorum number: IF 550918; Facesofungi number: FoF 00422
Etymology: Named after Camporesi Nello, who collected the sample from which the species was isolated.
Holotype: MFLU 14-0813.
Saprobic on a dead stem of Spartium junceum L. Sexual morph: Undetermined. Asexual morph: Coelomycetous. Conidiomata 250–350 μm high, 200–300 μm diam., pycnidial, solitary, immersed, globose to obpyriform, unilocular, centrally ostiolate, thick-walled. Peridium 15–25 μm wide, 4–5-layered, composed of outer 3–4-layers brown and inner 1–2-layers hyaline, thin-walled cells of textura angularis. Conidiophores reduced to conidiogenous cells, arising from the base and sides of the conidioma. Conidiogenous cells 3.5–10 μm long × 5–10 μm wide, enteroblastic, phialidic, determinate, ampulliform, lining the inner wall layer of the pycnidium, hyaline, smooth. Conidia 6.5–8.5 × 5–6 μm (x̄ = 7.5 × 5.5 μm; n=10), globose to obovate, thick-walled, smooth-walled, one-celled, hyaline when young, becoming dark brown at maturity.
Culture characters: Culture on PDA slow-growing, reaching 10–15 mm diam. after one week, circular, yellowish in the centre, with whitened edge, after one month, sparse, aerial, filamentous, no pigments produced.
Material examined: ITALY, Province of Forlì-Cesena [FC], Premilcuore, Fiumicello, on a dead twig of Spartium junceum L. (Fabaceae), 13 January 2013, E. Camporesi IT-1008 (MFLU 14–0813, holotype), ex-type living culture, MFLUCC 13–0487, ICMP 20796.
GenBank: ITS: KP711360; LSU: KP711365; SSU: KP711370; ibid. (KUN! HKAS 83972, isotype).
Notes: Paraconiothyrium was introduced by Verkley et al. (2004) to accommodate four species, namely Parac. estuarinum (type specie), Parac. brasiliense, Parac. cyclothyrioides and Parac. fungicola. Subsequently, the genus was expanded to include four more species, viz. Parac. africanum, Parac. babiogorense, Parac. hawaiiense and Parac. variabile (Damm et al. 2008, Budziszewska et al. 2011) and presently, Paraconiothyrium comprises 19 species (Wijayawardene et al. 2020). The morphological characters of Paraconiothyrium are variable. The conidiomata can be eustromatic to pycnidial, the conidiogenous cells are phialidic or annelidic, and the conidia smooth-walled or minutely warted and hyaline to brown at later stages of development (Verkley et al. 2004, de Gruyter et al. 2013). The description of Parac. nelloi fits well with this generic concept, and Parac. nelloi shares similarities with Parac. fuckelii in having pycnidial conidiomata with a single ostiole, and subglobose to ellipsoid or obovoid conidia (de Gruyter et al. 2013, Verkley et al. 2014). Parac. nelloi differs from Parac. fuckelii by the conidiogenous cells, which are phialidic in Parac. nelloi and annelidic in Parac. fuckelii. Combined phylogenetic analyses of ITS, SSU and LSU sequence data from Liu et al (2015) shows that Parac. nelloi is distinct from any other species of Paraconiothyrium. Based on the morphological characters together with molecular sequence data, Parac. nelloi is introduced as a new species.
Figure x. Paraconiothyrium nelloi (holotype) a Specimen. b Black conidiomata on the host surface. c Section of peridium. d Vertical section of conidiomata. e, f Conidiogenous cells and developing conidia. g Ostiole. h Germinated spore. i–k Conidia. l Culture on PDA. Scale bars: b= 200μm, c=20μm, e–f=5μm, g=50μm, i–k=5μm, l=25mm
References:
Budziszewska J, Szypula W, Wilk M, Wrzosek M 2011 – Paraconiothyrium babiogorense sp. nov., a new endophyte from fir club moss Huperzia selago (L.) Bernh. ex Schrank & Mart. (Huperziaceae). Mycotaxon 115, 457–468.
Damm U, Verkley GJM, Crous PW, Fourie PH et al. 2008 – Novel Paraconiothyrium species on stone fruit trees and other woody hosts. Persoonia 20, 9–17.
de-Gruyter J, Woudenberg JHC, Aveskamp MM, Verkley GJM et al. 2013 – Redisposition of Phoma-like anamorphs in Pleosporales. Studies in Mycology 75, 1–36.
Liu JK, Hyde KD, Jones EG, Ariyawansa HA et al. 2015 – Fungal diversity notes 1–110: taxonomic and phylogenetic contributions to fungal species. Fungal diversity 72, 1–97.
Verkley GJM, da Silva M, Wicklow DT, Crous PW 2004 – Paraconiothyrium, a new genus to accommodate the mycoparasite Coniothyrium minitans, anamorphs of Paraphaeosphaeria, and four new species. Studies in Mycology 50, 323–335.
Verkley GJM, Dukik K, Renfurm R, Göker M et al. 2014 – Novel genera and species of Coniothyrium-like fungi in Montagnulaceae (Ascomycota). Persoonia 32, 25–51.
Wijayawardene NN, Hyde KD, Al-Ani LKT, Tedersoo L et al. 2020 – Outline of Fungi and fungus-like taxa, Mycosphere 11, 1060–1456.
Last update: 06 March 2021