A phylogenetic reappraisal of Moorella and Thaxteriellopsis based on fresh material of the type species from India

ABSTRACT

Moorella was described as an asexual genus of Ascomycota initially discovered in India and comprises three accepted morphospecies. The original nomenclatural type (holotype) of Moorella speciosa (Herb. Hyd. V. V. C. B. L. No. 297) was missing from the repository, and neither a possible lectotype nor isotypes were located; we therefore designate a sequenced neotype from India to fix the application of this name. Even though, Thaxteriellopsis was synonymised initially under Chaetosphaerulina, the type species T. lignicola, was later resurrected due to its unique sexual morph characteristics. Although various authors reported natural and cultural co-occurrences of Moorella and Thaxteriellopsis, the taxonomy had not been reassessed by molecular methods under the provisions of one fungus: one name. Phylogenies inferred from Maximum Likelihood analysis and Bayesian Inference of the combined ITS, LSU, TEF1α and RPB2 sequence data delineated Moorella and erstwhile Thaxteriellopsis accessions in a single clade within Tubeufiaceae. Based on this molecular study and the one fungus: one name rule, the genus Moorella has priority over Thaxterillopsis, and both T. lignicola and T. obliqua are placed in Moorella (as M. lignicola and M. obliqua).

KEYWORDS:

• Ascomycota; fungi; neotype; new combinations; taxonomy; Tubeufiaceae

Acknowledgements

We thank P. K. Dhakephalkar, Director, MACS Agharkar Research Institute, Pune, for providing laboratory facilities and motivation for our work.

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the SERB, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India under Grant CRG/2020/000668; CSIR-HRDG, India under SRF fellowship 09/0670(13602)/2022-EMR-I.