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Wounds on Rapanea melanophloeos provide habitat for a large diversity of Ophiostomatales including four new species

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Abstract

Rapanea melanophloeos, an important canopy tree in Afromontane forests, is commonly utilised for medicinal bark harvesting. Wounds created from these activities provide entrance for many fungi, including arthropod-associated members of the Ophiostomatales and Microascales (ophiostomatoid fungi). In this study we assessed the diversity of wound-associated Ophiostomatales on storm-damaged R. melanophloeos trees in the Afromontane forests of South Africa. Five species were identified based on micro-morphological and molecular phylogenetic analyses. These included Ophiostoma stenoceras and four newly described taxa Sporothrix itsvo sp. nov., S. rapaneae sp. nov., S. uta sp. nov. and O. noisomeae sp. nov. Four of these are members of the S. schenckii–O. stenoceras complex (O. stenoceras, S. itsvo sp. nov., S. rapaneae sp. nov., S. uta sp. nov.) while O. noisomeae groups basal in the Ophiostomatales alongside the S. lignivora complex and Graphilbum. In addition to other taxa known from this host, the present study shows that there is a rich, yet still poorly explored, diversity of Ophiostomatales associated with R. melanophloeos in Afromontane forests. More taxa are likely to be discovered with increased research effort. These must be assessed in terms of pathogenicity towards this ecologically and economically important tree.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank the DST/NRF Centre of Excellence in Tree Health Biotechnology (CHTB) for financial support and the South African National Parks Board (SANPARKS) and Western Cape Nature Conservation Board for issuing the necessary collecting permits. We are also grateful to Netsai Machingambi, PC Benade and Dewidine van der Colff for assistance with field work and Jane Forrester for permission to work on trees in the Harold Porter National Botanical Garden.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Botany and Zoology, Stellenbosch University, Private Bag X1, Stellenbosch, 7600, South Africa

    Tendai Musvuugwa & Léanne L. Dreyer

  2. Department of Microbiology and Plant Pathology, Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI), University of Pretoria, Pretoria, 0002, South Africa

    Z. Wilhelm de Beer

  3. Department of Genetics, Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI), University of Pretoria, Pretoria, 0002, South Africa

    Tuan A. Duong

  4. DST/NRF Centre of Excellence in Tree Health Biotechnology (CTHB), Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI), Department of Microbiology and Plant Pathology, University of Pretoria, Private Bag X20, Hatfield, Pretoria, 0028, South Africa

    Léanne L. Dreyer & Francois Roets

  5. Institute of Botany, Academy of Sciences, 252 43, Průhonice, Czech Republic

    Kenneth Oberlander

  6. Department of Conservation Ecology and Entomology, Stellenbosch University, Private Bag X1, Stellenbosch, 7600, South Africa

    Kenneth Oberlander & Francois Roets

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  1. Tendai Musvuugwa
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  2. Z. Wilhelm de Beer
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Correspondence to Francois Roets.

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Musvuugwa, T., de Beer, Z.W., Duong, T.A. et al. Wounds on Rapanea melanophloeos provide habitat for a large diversity of Ophiostomatales including four new species. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 109, 877–894 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10482-016-0687-4

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