Pseudocosmospora, a new genus to accommodate Cosmospora vilior and related species

Abstract

Cosmospora sensu Rossman accommodated nectroid fungi with small, reddish, smooth, thin-walled perithecia but recently was found to be polyphyletic and has been segregated into multiple genera. Not all cosmospora-like fungi have been treated systematically. Some of these species include C. vilior and many specimens often labeled “Cosmospora sp.” The objectives of this research were to establish the identity of C. vilior through epitypication using a recent collection that agrees with the type specimen in morphology, host and geography and to determine its phylogenetic position within Cosmospora sensu lato and the Nectriaceae. A multilocus phylogeny was constructed based on six loci (ITS, LSU, MCM7, rpb1, tef1, tub) to estimate a phylogeny. Results from the phylogenetic analyses indicated that C. vilior forms a monophyletic group with other cosmospora-like fungi that have an acremonium-like anamorph and that parasitize Eutypa and Eutypella (Ascomycota, Sordariomycetes, Xylariales, Diatrypaceae). The group is phylogenetically distinct from other previously segregated genera. A new genus, Pseudocosmospora, is described to accommodate the type species, P. eutypellae, and nine additional species in this clade.

• fungal systematics
• GCPSR
• Mycoparasite
• Nectria
• one-to-one genus concept

Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge the assistance of the curators and their staff of the herbaria from which specimens were generously loaned. These herbaria include U.S. National Fungus Collection (BPI), William and Lynda Steere Herbarium, New York Botanical Garden (NY) and Herbarium of the Botany Department, Swedish Museum of National History (S). We also are grateful for the help of Yuuri Hirooka (Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, Japan), Peter Johnston (Landcare Research, New Zealand), Carlos Mendez (University of Costa Rica), John Plitschke (Pennsylvania), Andrea Romero and Romina Sanchez (Departamento de Biodiversidad y Biologia Experimental, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina) and Catalina Salgado (PSLA, UMD, USA) for contributing in the organization and collection of various specimens on collecting trips. The first author especially thanks Chun-Juan Wang (State University of New York, College of Environmental Science and Forestry) for mentoring the author as an undergraduate and guiding the author into the field of mycology. The first author also thanks current and former colleagues at USDA-ARS, SMML (USA) and PSLA, University of Maryland (USA) laboratories, for their moral support.

This study was financially supported by the United States National Science Foundation (NSF) PEET grant DEB-0731510 Monographic Studies in the Nectriaceae, Hypocreales: Nectria, Cosmospora, and Neonectria to P. Chaverri, A.Y. Rossman and G.J. Samuels.