Morphology and phylogeny reveal two novel Coryneum species from China

Abstract

Coryneum is currently the sole genus of Coryneaceae in Diaporthales, distinguished from other diaporthalean genera by transversely distoseptate brown conidia. However, Coryneum species are presently difficult to identify because of variability and overlap of morphological characters and the lack of sequence data for most described species. During fungal collection trips in China, 13 Coryneum isolates were obtained from cankered branches of Ilex and Quercus. Morphological and phylogenetic analyses (ITS, LSU, TEF1-α and RPB2) revealed that these strains belong to two new species (viz. Coryneum ilicis sp. nov. and C. songshanense sp. nov.), and three known species, C. gigasporum, C. sinense, and C. suttonii. Coryneum ilicis has larger conidia and more distosepta than most Coryneum species. Coryneum songshanense was similar to C. sinense from the same host genus, Quercus, in conidial length, but distinct in conidial width and by molecular data.