Simplicillium coffeanum, a new endophytic species from Brazilian coffee plants, emitting antimicrobial volatiles

Abstract

During a bioprospecting of fungi producing antimicrobial volatile organic compounds, two Verticillium-like isolates from coffee branches were obtained by a parallel growth technique using Muscodor albus CZ 620. Micro-morphological characteristics and phylogenetic analyses showed that both isolates belonged to Simplicillium and represented a new species, namely S. coffeanum. In the test for antimicrobial activity, the mixture of volatiles emitted by S. coffeanum COAD 2057 inhibited the growth of Aspergillus ochraceus, A. tubingensis, A. sydowii and A. niger on PDA. Among the compounds of volatile mixture, 1-Propanone, 1-(5-methyl-2-furanyl)-, Cyclopropane, 1-ethoxy-2, 2-dimethyl-3-(2-phenylethynyl)-, and 2-Propenoic acid, 3-(2-formyl-4-methoxyphenyl)-, ethyl ester, (E)- possessed the highest percentage of peak per area. Therefore, S. coffeanum has potentially biocontrol ability through the emission of antimicrobial volatiles.

Three novel insect-associated species of Simplicillium (Cordycipitaceae, Hypocreales) from Southwest China

“…The genus is characterized with its complete lack of verticillate branching; mostly solitary phialides, which are discrete, aculeate and narrow and arise from aerial hyphae; conidia short-ellipsoidal to suglobose or obclavate, and adhering in globose heads or imbricate chains (Zare and Gams 2001). The members of Simplicillium are fungicolous and occur on various substrata (Zare and Gams 2001; Chen et al 2008; Baiswar et al 2014; Gauthier et al 2014; Gomes et al 2018). Furthermore, Zare and Gams (2001) introduced three additional species, viz., S. lamellicola (F. E. V.…”

“…Simplicillium calcicola Z. F. Zhang, F. Liu & L. Cai, S. coffeanum A. A. M. Gomes & O. L. Pereira and S. filiforme R. M. F. Silva, R. J. V. Oliveira, Souza-Motta, J. L. Bezerra & G. A. Silva were reported by Zhang et al (2017), Gomes et al (2018) and Crous et al (2018), respectively. Currently, Simplicillium consists of 12 species.…”

“…Kepler et al (2017) re-evaluated the Cordycipitaceae based on the multigene dataset (SSU, LSU, TEF, RPB1 and RPB2), and indicated that Simplicillium species group in a clade and are the earliest diverging lineage in Cordycipitaceae. The nuclear ribosomal ITS and LSU were first used to identify cryptic diversification among Simplicillium species by Liu and Cai (2012) and then were widely applied in the identification of Simplicillium species by Nonaka et al (2013), Zhang et al (2017), Gomes et al (2018) and Crous et al (2018).…”

Fungal Planet description sheets: 785– 867

“…Notes — The genus Simplicillium was introduced by Zare & Gams (2001). Members of this genus include endophytic species, parasites and saprobes isolated from different environments such as soil, freshwater, plants and other parasitic fungi (Liu & Cai 2012, Nonaka et al 2013, Gomes et al 2018). Morphologically, S. filiforme is similar to S. obclavatum and S. chinense which also form conidial chains.…”

“…Simplicillium filiforme produces conidia that are long, fusoid to filiform, catenulate, straight to curved (7.2–12.5 × 1 μm) while S. obclavatum produces conidia obclavate to ellipsoidal (2.5–3.5 × 1–2 μm) and S. chinense produces conidia that are mostly ovoid, ellipsoidal or cylindrical (3.5–5 × 1–1.5 μm). Based on ITS rDNA, the new species S. filiforme is phylogenetically close to S. coffeanum , though S. coffeanum form macroconidia and microconidia with subglobose to ellipsoidal heads at the apex of the phialides (Gomes et al 2018).…”