Taxonomic analysis reveals a novel fungal species, Thyronectria pseudocaudata, on Berberis integerrima, highlighting fungal diversity within the genus Thyronectria.
Key Points
To identify and taxonomically describe a novel microfungus collected from dead branches of Berberis integerrima using morphological characteristics and multilocus phylogenetic analyses.
Examined microscopic morphological features of fungal specimens on host bark and in culture.
Performed phylogenetic analyses using maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference on concatenated sequence data from five gene regions: ITS, LSU, ACT1, TEF1, and TUB2.
Multilocus phylogenetic trees resolved the isolate as a distinct lineage within the genus Thyronectria, establishing the novel species Thyronectria pseudocaudata.
Thyronectria pseudocaudata was morphologically characterized by blackish perithecial ascomata, unitunicate asci, and muriform hyaline ascospores that bud into suballantoid ascoconidia within the asci.