Citizen science project reveals high diversity in Didymellaceae (Pleosporales, Dothideomycetes)

Abstract

Fungal communities play a crucial role in maintaining the health of managed and natural soil environments, which directly or indirectly affect the properties of plants and other soil inhabitants. As part of a Citizen Science Project initiated by the Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute and the Utrecht University Museum, which aimed to describe novel fungal species from Dutch garden soil, the diversity of Didymellaceae, which is one of the largest families in the Dothideomycetes was investigated. A preliminary analysis of the ITS and LSU sequences from the obtained isolates allowed the identification of 148 strains belonging to the family. Based on a multi-locus phylogeny of a combined ITS, LSU, rpb2 and tub2 alignment, and morphological characteristics, 20 different species were identified in nine genera, namely Ascochyta, Calophoma, Didymella, Juxtiphoma, Nothophoma, Paraboeremia, Phomatodes, Stagonosporopsis, and Xenodidymella. Several isolates confirmed to be ubiquitous plant pathogens or endophytes were for the first time identified from soil, such as Ascochyta syringae, Calophoma clematidis-rectae, and Paraboeremia litseae. Furthermore, one new genus and 12 novel species were described from soil: Ascochyta benningiorumsp. nov., Didymella degraaffiaesp. nov., D. kooimaniorumsp. nov., Juxtiphoma kolkmaniorumsp. nov., Nothophoma brennandiaesp. nov., Paraboeremia rekkerisp. nov., P. truiniorumsp. nov., Stagonosporopsis stuijvenbergiisp. nov., S. weymaniaesp. nov., Vandijckomycella joseaegen. nov. et sp. nov., V. snoekiaesp. nov., and Xenodidymella weymaniaesp. nov. From the results of this study, soil was revealed to be a rich substrate for members of Didymellaceae, several of which were previously known only from diseased or apparently healthy plant hosts.

Identification and Characterization of Leaf-Inhabiting Fungi from Castanea Plantations in China

“…Notes— Didymella is a famous pathogenic genus mainly occurring on plant leaves [ 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 ]. Phoma-like species are difficult to identify to the genus and species level due to a lack of good characteristics, making molecular data are essential during species identification [ 34 , 35 , 37 ].…”

New Dothideomycetes from Freshwater Habitats in Spain

“…In 2015, Chen et al carried out a multilocus phylogenetic analysis and the genus was defined as monophyletic and encompassing 37 species [28]. Approximately 30 new species have recently been included in the genus [23,24,29,30,[34][35][36]. In our phylogenetic analysis, Didymella brevipilosa was placed in an independent branch separated from the rest of Didymella spp.…”

“…Recently, molecular biology helped to clarify the phylogenetic relationships between the members of the Dothideomycetes, especially among several phoma-like fungal taxa. Multilocus analyses based on LSU, ITS, rpb2, tef-1, and tub2 sequences have been widely used to define the species boundaries for the Didymellaceae, the Phaeosphaeriaceae and other families of the Dothideomycetes [23,24,[27][28][29][30]. However, rpb2 alone provides a phylogenetic tree with a similar topology to those obtained with more phylogenetic markers [24,30,31].…”

Citizen science project reveals novel fusarioid fungi (Nectriaceae, Sordariomycetes) from urban soils

“…The present Citizen Science Project was initiated by the Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute (WI) and the Utrecht University Museum, aiming to investigate the diversity of fungi in Dutch garden soil collected by children in their home gardens and schoolgrounds from different regions in the Netherlands ( Crous et al 2017 , 2018 , 2021a ; Groenewald et al 2018 , Giraldo et al . 2019 , Hernández-Restrepo et al 2020 , Hou et al . 2020 ).…”