Lignicolous freshwater fungi from China II: Novel Distoseptispora (Distoseptisporaceae) species from northwestern Yunnan Province and a suggested unified method for studying lignicolous freshwater fungi

Abstract

This is the second in a series of papers on lignicolous freshwater fungi from China. In this paper, eight fresh collections of asexual morphs of Distoseptispora, isolated from submerged wood in northwestern Yunnan Province, China, are characterized based on morphological characters and phylogenetic analyses of combined ITS, LSU, RPB2 and TEF1α sequence data. Four new Distoseptispora species (D. cangshanensis, D. obpyriformis, D. rostrata and D. submersa) are introduced, described and illustrated, with notes on their taxonomy and phylogeny. Newly generated molecular data of Distoseptispora fluminicola is also provided. We also provide a unified method for studying lignicolous freshwater fungi to standardize the findings of future Asian studies. Key word – Asexual fungi – Methodology – Phylogeny – Sordariomycetes – Taxonomy Introduction Lignicolous freshwater fungi play an important role in nutrient and carbon cycling, biological diversity and ecosystem functioning in freshwater ecosystems (Palmer et al. 1997, Yuen et al. 1998, Bucher et al. 2004, Vijaykrishna et al. 2005, Hyde et al. 2016a). There have been some studies on lignicolous freshwater fungi in Yunnan Province, China (Cai et al. 2002, Luo et al. 2004, 2016, 2017, 2018, Liu et al. 2015, Su et al. 2015, 2016, Zhu et al. 2016) and in this paper, we deal with the genus Distoseptispora K.D. Hyde, McKenzie & Maharachch. which belongs to Distoseptisporaceae, Sordariomycetes. The family Distoseptisporaceae K.D. Hyde & McKenzie was introduced by Su et al. (2016) with a single genus Distoseptispora to accommodate two Sporidesmium-like species. Yang et al. (2018) emended the description of the genus Distoseptispora which is characterized by Mycosphere 9(3): 444–461 (2018) www.mycosphere.org ISSN 2077 7019