Menisporopsis aquatica: A new species of freshwater Fungus from Zhejiang Province, China.

Although generally thought of as terrestrial organisms, Fungi are an integral part of marine, freshwater, and wet terrestrial ecosystems, helping to break down dead organic tissue, and in particular wood. The genus Menisporopsis contains 13 species of marine and freshwater Ascomycote Fungi producing pigmented, synnematous conidiophores (cylindrical asexual spores). The genus was first described in 1952 to describe a Fungus found growing on rotting Cocoa leaves in Ghana.

In a paper published in the Biodiversity Data Journal on 21 October 2022, Jia-Hao Chen of Jiangxi Agricultural University, Dian-Ming Hu, also of Jiangxi Agricultural University, and of the Jiangxi Environmental Engineering Vocational College, and Hai-Yan Song, Zhi-Jun Zhai, Lin La, and Kang-Hui Lin, also of Jiangxi Agricultural University, describe a new species of Menisporopsis found growing on submerged wood in a brook in Zhejiang Province, China.

The new species was established as such using a molecular phylogeny based upon  a combined two-loci dataset, including the internal transcribed spacer sequences and the nuclear ribosomal large subunit gene sequences. This found the new species to be nested within the Menisporopsis clade, forming a sister group to the branch comprising Menisporopsis breviseta and Menisporopsis pandanicola, with Menisporopsis dushanensis forming the sister group to all three of these species. Having been established as a new species, the Fungus was named Menisporopsis aquatica in reference to its freshwater habitat.

Phylogenetic tree obtained from the DNA sequence data of internal transcribed spacer sequences and ribosomal large subunit sequences of 32 strains showing taxa in Menisporopsis and Dictyochaeta. The new isolates are shown in bold, red. The bootstrap values (greater than 75%) and Bayesian posterior probabilities (greater than 95%) are presented at the nodes. The scale bar shows the number of estimated mutations per site. The tree was rooted to Leptosporella arengae (MFLUCC 15-0330) and Leptosporella bambusae (MFLUCC 12-0846). Chen et al. (2022).

Menisporopsis aquatica was found growing on submerged wood in the Qianjia Lou Brook near the town of Daoxu in Shangyu District. The Fungus forms a pale yellow to pale brown branching mycelium. It produces black setae, which are surrounded by tightly packed brown conidiophores. 

Menisporopsis aquatica (HFJAU 10038, Holotype) (a)-(b) conidiophores and conidia on submerged wood; (c) conidiophores with seta; (d) apex of the conidiophore with developing conidia; (e) base of the conidiophore; (f) seta; (g)-(j) conidia; (k) colony on Potato dextrose agar. Scale bars: (a)-(b), 100 µm; (c), 50 µm; (d)-(j), 10 µm. Chen et al. (2022).

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