Hidden diversity of Pestalotiopsis and Neopestalotiopsis (Amphisphaeriales, Sporocadaceae) species allied with the stromata of entomopathogenic fungi in Taiwan Author Hsu, Sheng-Yu https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6227-0936 Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology, National Taiwan University, Taipei 106319, Taiwan Author Xu, Yuan-Cheng https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3885-498X Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology, National Taiwan University, Taipei 106319, Taiwan Author Lin, Yu-Chen https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2319-0869 Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology, National Taiwan University, Taipei 106319, Taiwan Author Chuang, Wei-Yu Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology, National Taiwan University, Taipei 106319, Taiwan Author Lin, Shiou-Ruei Section of Tea Agronomy, Tea Research and Extension Station, Council of Agriculture, Taoyuan City 326011, Taiwan Author Stadler, Marc https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7284-8671 Department Microbial Drugs, Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research GmbH (HZI), Inhoffenstrasse 7, 38124, Braunschweig, Germany Author Tangthirasunun, Narumon https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7619-9464 Department of Biology, School of Science, King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Ladkrabang (KMITL), Bangkok, 10520, Thailand narumon.ta@kmitl.ac.th Author Cheewangkoon, Ratchadawan https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8576-3696 Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, Faculty of Agriculture, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, 50200, Thailand Author AL-Shwaiman, Hind A. https://orcid.org/0009-0002-5872-9083 Department of Botany and Microbiology, College of Sciences, King Saud University, P. O. Box 2455, Riyadh, 11451, Saudi Arabia Author Elgorban, Abdallah M. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3664-7853 Department of Botany and Microbiology, College of Sciences, King Saud University, P. O. Box 2455, Riyadh, 11451, Saudi Arabia Author Ariyawansa, Hiran A. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8526-7721 Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology, National Taiwan University, Taipei 106319, Taiwan ariyawansa44@ntu.edu.tw text MycoKeys 2024 2024-01-31 101 275 312 http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/mycokeys.101.113090 journal article http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/mycokeys.101.113090 1314-4049-101-275 8AEB930BC0B758D284D5FA6CAA673FD6 Neopestalotiopsis sp. Fig. 10 Description. See Suppl. material 1: table S1. Materials examined. Taiwan , Pingtung County , Chunri Township , Tahan Forest Road , on stroma of Beauveria sp. parasitic on an insect ( Lepidoptera ), 7 October 2018 , Wei-Yu Chuang, living culture NTUPPMCC 18-161 (= CD02) . Figure 10. Conidial morphology of Pestalotiopsis formosana ( A, B NTUPPMCC 21-056), Pestalotiopsis trachycarpicola ( C NTUPPMCC 18-160 D NTUPPMCC 21-055) and Neopestalotiopsis sp. ( E NTUPPMCC 18-161), isolated from entomopathogenic fungi in this study. Scale bars: 20 μm ( A-E ). Notes. As mentioned earlier in this manuscript, even though the new strain NTUPPMCC 18-161 formed a distinct clade basal to N. asiatica , N. chrysea , N. macadamiae and N. umbrinospora in all ML, MP and BI phylogenetic trees, based on the concatenated DNA sequence data matrix, it did not consistently form clades in most of single-locus trees. For instance, in the ITS phylogeny (Suppl. material 2: fig. S8), NTUPPMCC 18-161 clustered with N. acrostichi (MFLUCC 17-1755) and the clade containing the ex-type strain (MFLUCC 15-0776) of N. musae , along with two representative strains (MM3-2z9A and MM3-2z9C). Conversely, in the phylogenetic tree, based on tub2 (Suppl. material 2: fig. S9), NTUPPMCC 18-161 formed a well-supported clade with the clade containing the ex-type strain of N. asiatica (MFLUCC 12-0286), N. chrysea (MFLUCC 12-0261), N. coffeae-arabicae (HGUP 4019), N. macadamiae (BRIP 63737c), N. sonneratae (MFLUCC 17-1744), N. thailandica (MFLUCC 17-1730) and N. umbrinospora (MFLUCC 12-0285). Meanwhile, it formed a separate sister clade to N. guajavae , N. pandanicola and N. psidii in the tef1-α phylogeny (Suppl. material 2: fig. S10) with poor branch and statistical support. When comparing the morphological features of strain NTUPPMCC 18-161 with its phylogenetically closelyrelated species, it becomes evident that our strain exhibits overlapping morphological features, particularly in the number of appendages and sizes of the conidial features (Suppl. material 1: table S10). Therefore, owing to the uncertainty in both phylogenetic placement and morphological data, we tentatively identify NTUPPMCC 18-161 as an unclassified Neopestalotiopsis strain. However, additional strains and information are required to clarify the correct placement of this strain.