Global Diversity, Host Associations, and New Insights into Aigialaceae, Astrosphaeriellaceae, and Pseudoastrosphaeriellaceae

During a survey of plant litter-associated microfungi in Guangdong and Jiangxi Provinces, China, several specimens that have carbonaceous ascomata were collected. Morphological characteristics combined with multi-gene (LSU, SSU, and tef1-α) phylogeny revealed that they belong to the Aigialaceae, Astrosphaeriellaceae, and Pseudoastrosphaeriellaceae families. Phylogenetic analyses were conducted using Maximum Likelihood (ML) and Bayesian Inference (BI) approaches. Caryospora pruni and Pseudoastrosphaeriella zingiberacearum are introduced as new species, and Astrosphaeriella bambusae, C. quercus, Fissuroma caryotae, and Neoastrosphaeriella aquatica are introduced as new host records. In addition, Caryospora minima is synonymized under C. aquatica based on close morphological and phylogenetic relationships. All the newly introduced species fit well with their respective generic concepts and can be distinguished from closely related species in their morphology and DNA molecular data. The new host records also provide similar morphological characteristics to their respective type species, and multi-gene phylogeny analyses also offer evidence for their placements. In addition, we compiled the geographical distribution and host associations of species in Aigialaceae, Astrosphaeriellaceae, and Pseudoastrosphaeriellaceae. This provides a database for future studies to understand the ecological interactions and geographical variations.