Abstract
A new species, Hypocrea atroviridis, is described for the teleomorph of Trichoderma atroviride. Based on sequences of ITS-1, 5.8S, and ITS-2 regions of the rDNA complex and translation-elongation factor (EF-1α), T. atroviride and H. atroviridis form a well-supported clade within Trichoderma sect. Trichoderma. The conserved anamorphic phenotype of T. atroviride, observed for both conidial and ascospore derived cultures, was only found within that clade. In contrast, the teleomorph phenotype of H. atroviridis was morphologically indistinguishable from H. rufa, the teleomorph of T. viride. This Hypocrea phenotype may, therefore, be considered to be plesiomorphic within Trichoderma sect. Trichoderma, suggesting that genes controlling the expression of the teleomorph and anamorph evolve at different rates and that the genes controlling expression of the teleomorph are more conserved than are those controlling the expression of the anamorph.
The authors are grateful to Ms. Priscila Chaverri and Dr. Lisa Castlebury for their expert guidance. We also acknowledge Dr. David M. Geiser for help with DNA sequence analysis and Dr. Amy Y. Rossman and two anonymous reviewers for comments offered in the preparation of this manuscript. We are grateful to one anonymous reviewer for correcting the Latin diagnosis. This study was supported in part by the United Sates National Science Foundation (PEET) grant 9712308, ‘Monographic Studies of Hypocrealean Fungi: Hypocrea and Hypomyces' to the Pennsylvania State University, Department of Plant Pathology.