Fungicolous Mucor on mushrooms: One novel species and six host records from southwest China and northern Thailand

ABSTRACT

Mucor species are a group of common soil-borne fungi, known to cause infections on humans and animals, interfere in food production, and act as useful agents in biotechnological applications. This study reports one new Mucor species, M. yunnanensis, which was found to be fungicolous on an Armillaria sp. from southwest China. Further, M. circinelloides on Phlebopus sp., M. hiemalis on Ramaria sp. and Boletus sp., M. irregularis on Pleurotus sp., M. nederlandicus on Russula sp., and M. yunnanensis on Boletus sp. are reported as new host records. Mucor yunnanensis and M. hiemalis have been collected from Yunnan Province in China, whereas M. circinelloides, M. irregularis, and M. nederlandicus have been collected from Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai Provinces in Thailand. All the Mucor taxa reported herein were identified based on both morphology and phylogenetic analyses of a combined nuc rDNA internal transcribed spacer region ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 (ITS) and partial nuc 28S rDNA (28S) sequence matrix. Comprehensive descriptions, illustrations, and a phylogenetic tree are provided for all the taxa reported in the study to show the placements of taxa, and the new taxon is compared with its sister taxa.

KEYWORDS:

• Fungicolous fungi
• molecular phylogeny
• Mucorales
• Mucoromycota
• taxonomy
• 1 new taxon

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors thank Mae Fah Luang University and Mushroom Research Foundation, Thailand, for the valuable support provided for research. Dr. Ishara Manawasinghe, Dr. Shaun Pennycook, and Dr. Vedprakash G. Hurdeal are thanked for their valuable support provided during this study. Samantha C. Karunarathna thanks the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 32260004) and “Yunnan Revitalization Talents Support Plan” (High-End Foreign Experts Program). RS Jayawardena would like to thank the Eminent scholar offered by Kyun Hee University.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Mae Fah Luang University grant “Identification of fungicolous fungi in northern Thailand” (grant number 651B01010), National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT) grant “Total fungal diversity in a given forest area with implications towards species numbers, chemical diversity and biotechnology” (grant number N42A650547), and the thesis/dissertation support grant (reference number 7702(6)/301) from Mae Fah Luang University.