Aspergillus arcoverdensis, a new species isolated from semi-desert soil in a caatinga area, State of Pernambuco, Brazil, and a similar environment in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China, is described and illustrated. It is characterized by relatively long conidiophores for Aspergillus section Fumigati, and subglobose to broadly ellipsoidal and smooth conidia. The delimitation of this new species is supported further by phylogenetic analyses of the β-tubulin, calmodulin and actin gene sequences.

The asexual stage of a powdery mildew on Chelidonium majus has been reported from various countries, but the corresponding sexual stage of this fungus has not yet been reported. In Oct 2011, many chasmothecia of this powdery mildew was found on C. majus plants growing in the campus of Jilin Agricultrual University in Changchun, China. The morphological characteristics of the asexual and sexual stages revealed this fungus as Erysiphe macleayae. A sequence of the ribosomal DNA internal transcribed spacer region including the 5.8S rRNA gene, amplified from DNA of several chasmothecia, was 99.8–100% identical to that of E. macleayae records on GenBank. This is the first report of the teleomorph of E. macleayae on C. majus.

Globally marine fungal diversity is poorly known, especially in Mexico. We evaluated the diversity of marine ascomycetes on five tourist beaches on Cozumel Island in September 2004, and in February 2007. Fifty sample units were collected randomly from each beach during each sampling time. Seven species were recovered, of which Lindra thalassiae and Corollospora maritima were the most dominant species. Corollospora gracilis and Lulworthia grandispora are new records for Cozumel Island. The highest diversity value was found in San Francisco beach, probably because the surrounding coral reefs are an important source of a wide variety of substrata for these fungi.

Alternaria cinerariae, an important and well-known plant pathogen of cineraria, has been delimited by its narrowly to broadly ellipsoid or ovoid conidia with blunt-tapered false beaks, but without descriptions of its morphological variability and host range. Leaf spot diseases have recently been found on asteraceous plants Pericallis cruenta, Farfugium japonicum, and Gynura bicolor in Japan, with A. cinerariae-like isolates subsequently obtained from the lesions. In this study, we identified these isolates as A. cinerariae using an integrated species criterion based on morphology, phylogeny, and pathogenicity, and examined their morphological variability. Although isolates exhibited morphological differences with respect to sporulation pattern, conidial swelling, and chlamydospore formation, phylogenetic analysis using gpd, rpb2, and tef1 sequences clustered them together in a single clade with a previously recognized A. cinerariae strain. Inoculation tests on 17 species, including five Senecioneae species, were performed to determine the experimental host range of A. cinerariae. The results suggest that A. cinerariae has considerable morphological variation and preferential pathogenicity to Senecioneae plants, and also indicate that G. bicolor should be added as a natural host of A. cinerariae.

In this study, we identified a gene, Ste7, in the genome of Bipolaris maydis encoding a mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) kinase homologous to yeast Ste7. A Δste7 strain was defective in conidiation and conidial germination, and was severely impaired in lesion formation, mainly due to the loss of appressoria, whereas the effect on infectious hyphal development was not significant. The Δste7 strain did not have a maternal ability for sexual reproduction, mainly in protothecium formation. These phenotypes of Δste7 were also observed in Δchk1 and Δste11, null mutant strains of MAPK and MAPK kinase kinase, respectively. These observations strongly suggested that Ste7 is a component of the Chk1 MAPK cascade, and is involved in the regulation of various developmental and morphogenetic processes in the asexual and sexual lifecycles of B. maydis.

The teleomorph of Erysiphe takamatsui, a powdery mildew of lotus, was found in 2012 at a lotus pond of Niigata-shi, Japan, where this species was first found in 1974. This is the second record of teleomorph of E. takamatsui. Morphological and molecular analyses revealed that the asexual stages of the lotus powdery mildews found in Aichi, Osaka and Tokyo represent the anamorph of E. takamatsui. The nucleotide sequences of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) and 28S rRNA gene were identical to those of E. aquilegiae, E. catalpae, and E. macleayae. These species formed a homogeneous clade together with E. sedi, Pseudoidium neolycopersici, and Pseudoidium spp. occurring on a wide range of plant families with only five base substitutions of ITS sequences in maximum. These results suggest that E. takamatsui is a fungus that appeared as a result of recent host expansion.

Fomitopsis subfeei sp. nov. is described from southern China based on morphological and molecular evidence. This fungus is characterized by perennial, effused-reflexed to pileate basidiomes, concentrically sulcate pileal surface, pinkish brown to vinaceous brown pore surface, fusoid cystidioles, small, oblong-ellipsoid basidiospores (4–5 × 1.9–2.5 μm), and occurrence on gymnosperms. Morphologically, Fomitopsis subfeei is similar to F. feei and F. incarnata, but distinct from the latter two species phylogenetically. Phylogeny based on the internal transcribed spacer regions and nuclear large subunit ribosomal RNA gene regions supported Fomitopsis subfeei as a distinctive new species in Fomitopsis.

Near-ultraviolet (NUV) light and blue light have different effects on fungal fruiting body development. However, while blue light signaling has been well studied, the process of NUV-induced signals transduction remains unclear. In this study, we found that NUV light caused the pileus of Grifola frondosa to darken in color and double in expansion compared to when it was exposed to blue light, suggesting that G. frondosa distinguishes between NUV light and blue light. We then sought a putative transcription factor expressed under NUV light and identified Gf.BMR1, which has the same two Cys₂His₂ zinc finger domains and one Zn(II)₂Cys₆ binuclear cluster in the N-terminus as the melanin biosynthesis regulation protein, BMR1, in Bipolaris oryzae. However, the level of expression induced by both NUV light and blue light was the same. This result suggested that pileus darkening and expansion in G. frondosa are not regulated solely by Gf.BMR1.

Cephalanthera is an orchid genus that harbors mixotrophic species obtaining carbon compounds from nearby trees via ectomycorrhizal fungi. Cephalanthera species show variable levels of fungal dependency and specificity. We identified mycobionts from C. longibracteata. A total of 142 root samples were collected from 68 C. longibracteata individuals at five sites in Japan, and their associated mycobionts were identified based on the DNA sequences of nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer regions using a molecular taxonomical method. Several groups of ectomycorrhizal fungi, including Russulaceae, Sebacinaceae, and Thelephoraceae were identified from the roots of C. longibracteata, suggesting that C. longibracteata has lower fungal specificity than other Cephalanthera species examined previously.

Two new species of Coltriciella, C. globosa and C. pseudodependens, are described from southern China on the basis of morphological and molecular characters. Phylogenetic analysis based on the large subunit of nuclear ribosomal RNA gene region show that the two new species nest within the clade including Coltriciella and Coltricia genera, but the relationship between these two genera is unresolved yet. The ornamented basidiospores of the two new species revealed that they morphologically belonged to Coltriciella. Coltriciella globosa is characterized by erect and centrally stipitate basidiocarps, angular pores measuring 2–4 per mm, fusoid cystidioles and globose, verrucose, yellowish basidiospores. Coltriciella pseudodependens is very similar to C. dependens, but differs in having larger pores and distinctly larger basidiospores. An identification key to the accepted species of Coltriciella currently is provided.

Three distinct groups were revealed among the grapevine leaf rust fungi from Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, East Timor and Australia in phylograms generated from sequence analyses of the internal transcribed spacer 2 and the large-subunit rRNA gene (D1/D2 region). A group of Thai, Malaysian-Indonesian and East Timorese-Australian fungi was distinct from two other groups of grapevine leaf rust fungi, Phakopsora meliosmae-myrianthae and P. montana, distributed in temperate East Asia. Although complete life cycle and native host plants are unknown for the Southeast Asian and Australasian fungus, it is likely to be a biologically distinct species.

A new species of Pezicula, P. neosporulosa associated with Abies alba in the Netherlands and A. beshanzuensis in China is described, illustrated and compared to its sister species P. sporulosa, P. cinnamomea and P. eucrita. Morphologically, P. neosporulosa is shown to be similar to P. sporulosa both in sexual and asexual sporulating structures. However, from China the species is only known from endophytic isolates, and sporulating structures were never obtained in them. In contrast to the three sister species, the new species does not produce microconidia directly from ascospores or from macroconidia, but only from conidiophores in conidiomata. Moreover, the colony appearance is highly variable in endophytic isolates. Bayesian, maximum parsimony and maximum-likelihood phylogenetic analyses based on four unlinked loci (internal transcribed spacer, RPB2, TEF-1α and β-tubulin) in concatenated datasets confirmed that all isolates in P. neosporulosa were well separated from closely allied species with high bootstrap value and posterior probability. Taken together, the molecular and morphological evidence supports the introduction of P. neosporulosa as a novel taxon.

Ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungal communities have been relatively poorly documented in neotropical forests. We analyzed the structure and diversity of the ECM resistant propagules present in the soil of Mexican neotropical forests dominated by Pinus montezumae. Soil samples were collected under mature P. montezumae, and microcosms were set up with bioassayed seedlings. The ECM propagules were formed by relatively few taxa that were evenly distributed across the sampled area. Some taxa, such as Rhizopogon spp. and Atheliaceae sp., formed an extensive mycelial system, which is likely to confer them with an advantage for seedling colonization. We also compared the species composition of the ECM propagules with the ECM communities previously assessed on the roots of seedlings and adult trees. They were represented by different taxa, although similarity analyses did not detect differences in species occurrence. Only two taxa, belonging to the Atheliaceae family, were shared between field and bioassayed seedlings, whereas 12 taxa were common to field seedlings and adult trees. The lower similarity between bioassayed and field seedlings suggests that fungal taxa found as resistant propagules are not active in mycelial networks in field conditions and that mycorrhizal network-mediated colonization may be prevalent in this neotropical forest.

A new species of the genus Rickia is described on ants of the genus Messor based on collections from Greece and France. Rickia lenoirii is distinguished from Rickia wasmannii by the smaller size of the thallus and by the fewer number of cells in each of the three series, as well by other characteristics. The newly described species belongs to the perlata morphological group and because of its diminutive thallus may be compared with similar small species, mostly on mites; therefore it could be included among acarophilous forms according to an old Thaxter definition. The database of ant-Laboulbenial interactions consists of 43 species, 10 genera, and three subfamilies of ants documented as hosts for the six Laboulbeniales known from ants worldwide. Some ant Laboulbenial species show a low host phylogenetic specificity while other species are much restricted in their host range. The highly biased known distribution of ant Laboulbeniales is probably an artifact and the database is far from being complete.

Several novelties of powdery mildews in Japan are reported, including the first Japanese collection of the teleomorph of Erysiphe platani on Platanus × acerifolia, the first description of ascomata of E. viburni on Viburnum sieboldii var. obovatifolium, and the first morphological descriptions and molecular data for E. wallrothii on Leucothoë grayana and Pseudoidium hortensiae on Hydrangea serrata var. megacarpa based on Japanese specimens.

Phellinopsis asetosa sp. nov. is described from Yunnan Province, southwestern China. Phellinopsis asetosa resembles Fulvifomes inermis in the field. The two species have a similar hyphal structure in both context and trama, besides lack of hymenial setae. However, Fulvifomes inermis produces smaller and darker basidiospores than P. asetosa. In the internal transcription spacer (ITS) phylogeny, P. asetosa was recovered within the Phellinopsis clade. Phellinopsis asetosa is distinguished from other species of Phellinopsis mainly by its lack of hymenial setae. The concept of Phellinopsis is thus emended to reflect this feature, the seasonal habit and duplex context of Phellinopsis junipericola and the resupinate basidiocarps of P. asetosa and P. resupinata. A key to six accepted species of Phellinopsis is provided.