In: Sydowia 76, (2024): 01-10; ISSN 0082-0598, DOI 10.12905/0380.sydowia76-2024-0001, Published online on July 17, 2023

Syncephalastrum irregulare (Mucorales, Mucoromycota) – a new endophytic species from Brazil

André Luiz Cabral Monteiro de Azevedo Santiago,#,*, Diogo Xavier Lima,#, Karla Torres Lins de Souza
Freire, Thuong Thuong Thi Nguyen, Hyang Burm Lee,*, Cristina Maria de Souza-Motta,
Thalline Rafhaella Leite Cordeiro, Mateus Oliveira da Cruz & Jadson Diogo Pereira Bezerra

# These authors contributed equally to this study.

1 Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biologia de Fungos, Departamento de Micologia. Universidade Federal de Pernambuco.
Av. da Engenharia s/n, 50740–600, Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil

2 Environmental Microbiology Lab, Department of Agricultural Biological Chemistry, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences,
Chonnam National University, Gwangju 61186, Republic of Korea

3 Laboratório de Micologia, Instituto de Patologia Tropical e Saúde Pública, Universidade Federal de Goiás. Rua 235, s/n,
74605–050, Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil

* e-mails: andrelcabral@msn.com, hblee@jnu.ac.kr

Santiago A.L.C.M.A., Lima D.X., Freire K.T.L.S., Nguyen, T.T.T., Lee H.B., Souza-Motta C.M., Cordeiro T.R.L., Cruz M.O. &
Bezerra J.D.P. (2023) Syncephalastrum irregulare (Mucorales, Mucoromycota) – a new endophytic species from Brazil. – Sydowia 76: 1–9.

During an investigation of endophytic fungi associated with the leaves of Tillandsia catimbauensis (Bromeliaceae) in Brazil,
we obtained two endophytic Syncephalastrum isolates (URM 8356 and KF360). Based on molecular data (ITS and LSU rDNA
sequences), they were recognized as a unique lineage of Syncephalastrum that differs from all other known species of this genus. Morphologically, the new species is quite different from the other four Syncephalastrum species in concomitantly forming merosporangiophores with bizarre, irregular-shaped vesicles and merosporangia with up to 20 merospores each, which were commonly globose or subglobose, elliptical, and oblong with a few being more dilated at one end. Based on phylogenetic and morphological evidences, a new species of Syncephalastrum is hereby proposed.

Keywords: endophytes, phylogeny, Syncephalastraceae, taxonomy. – 1 new species.