Milan C. Samarakoon, KUN-CHIN Hsu, Chun-I Chiu, CHI-YU Chen, Hou-Feng Li, S. Haituk
{"title":"Ophiocordyceps taiwanensis sp. nov. (Ophiocordycipitaceae, Hypocreales) on Odontotermes formosanus (Termitidae, Blattodea)","authors":"Milan C. Samarakoon, KUN-CHIN Hsu, Chun-I Chiu, CHI-YU Chen, Hou-Feng Li, S. Haituk","doi":"10.11646/phytotaxa.660.2.1","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Ophiocordyceps species are found worldwide, with their greatest diversity occurring in tropical and subtropical regions, particularly in Southeast Asia. In June 2020, during a study conducted in Taiwan, stromata associated with dead termite alates (or winged termites) (Odontotermes formosanus) were collected and characterized. This study identified a unique sexual morph, Ophiocordyceps taiwanensis sp. nov., distinguished by its asci and ascospore morphology compared to the majority of Ophiocordyceps species. Our new collection exhibits similarities to O. bispora (≡ Cordycepioideus bisporus), particularly in having asci with two ascospores. However, it differs in the shape of its perithecia, which are subglobose to ovoid, and in possessing smaller, aseptate ascospores. Phylogenetic analysis using various gene combinations in both preliminary and final LSU-ITS-SSU-TEF1-RPB2 sequence alignments revealed that our new isolates form a clade closely related to O. bispora KVL 606, supported by 88% MP/100% ML/1.00 PP BI statistical support. Based on its distinct morphology and phylogenetic placement, we propose O. taiwanensis as a new species, representing the first recorded instance of an Ophiocordyceps species associated with termites in Taiwan.","PeriodicalId":20114,"journal":{"name":"Phytotaxa","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0000,"publicationDate":"2024-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Phytotaxa","FirstCategoryId":"99","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.660.2.1","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"PLANT SCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Ophiocordyceps species are found worldwide, with their greatest diversity occurring in tropical and subtropical regions, particularly in Southeast Asia. In June 2020, during a study conducted in Taiwan, stromata associated with dead termite alates (or winged termites) (Odontotermes formosanus) were collected and characterized. This study identified a unique sexual morph, Ophiocordyceps taiwanensis sp. nov., distinguished by its asci and ascospore morphology compared to the majority of Ophiocordyceps species. Our new collection exhibits similarities to O. bispora (≡ Cordycepioideus bisporus), particularly in having asci with two ascospores. However, it differs in the shape of its perithecia, which are subglobose to ovoid, and in possessing smaller, aseptate ascospores. Phylogenetic analysis using various gene combinations in both preliminary and final LSU-ITS-SSU-TEF1-RPB2 sequence alignments revealed that our new isolates form a clade closely related to O. bispora KVL 606, supported by 88% MP/100% ML/1.00 PP BI statistical support. Based on its distinct morphology and phylogenetic placement, we propose O. taiwanensis as a new species, representing the first recorded instance of an Ophiocordyceps species associated with termites in Taiwan.
期刊介绍:
Phytotaxa is a peer-reviewed, international journal for rapid publication of high quality papers on any aspect of systematic and taxonomic botany, with a preference for large taxonomic works such as monographs, floras, revisions and evolutionary studies and descriptions of new taxa. Phytotaxa covers all groups covered by the International Code of Nomenclature foralgae, fungi, and plants ICNafp (fungi, lichens, algae, diatoms, mosses, liverworts, hornworts, and vascular plants), both living and fossil. Phytotaxa was founded in 2009 as botanical sister journal to Zootaxa. It has a large editorial board, who are running this journal on a voluntary basis, and it is published by Magnolia Press (Auckland , New Zealand). It is also indexed by SCIE, JCR and Biosis.
All types of taxonomic, floristic and phytogeographic papers are considered, including theoretical papers and methodology, systematics and phylogeny, monographs, revisions and reviews, catalogues, biographies and bibliographies, history of botanical explorations, identification guides, floras, analyses of characters, phylogenetic studies and phytogeography, descriptions of taxa, typification and nomenclatural papers. Monographs and other long manuscripts (of 60 printed pages or more) can be published as books, which will receive an ISBN number as well as being part of the Phytotaxa series.