Abstract
During the assessment of coprophilous mucoralean diversity in northeastern areas of Brazil, a Lichtheimia-like specimen (URM 8358) was isolated from rabbit dung. It was characterized based on morphological, physiological, and molecular analyses of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS), large subunit ribosomal (LSU) and actin DNA sequences. These analyses revealed a novel Lichtheimia species, which is described herein. The novel species forms abundantly branched sporangiophores, with most branches arising near the main sporangia, various-shaped columellae, and irregularly shaped sporangiospores. Furthermore, this manuscript provides notes of all Lichtheimia species, and an identification key for the genus is provided. These findings contribute to the existing knowledge on the taxonomy and distribution of Lichtheimia. Because of the clinical relevance of other Lichtheimia species, we encourage future research to determine whether URM 8358 can be pathogenic to humans.
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Data availability
The sequences generated during the current study (ITS, LSU rDNA and actin gene) are available in the Genbank repository.The description of L. piauiensis was registered in MycoBank.
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Funding
We thank the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) for providing a scholarship for scientific initiation and master’s course to Cruz, M.O. and a research grant to Santiago, A.L.C.M.A. This work was also supported by National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT (2022M3H9A1082984) and Basic Science Research Program (2022R1I1A3068645) through the National Research Foundation (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education of Korea.
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All authors contributed to the study and design as well as to material preparation, dung collection, fungus isolation and morphological description were performed by Mateus Oliveira da Cruz, Francisca Robervânia Soares dos Santos, Maria Helena Alves and André Luiz Cabral Monteiro de Azevedo Santiago. DNA extraction and molecular analyses were performed by Mateus Oliveira da Cruz, Thalline Rafhaella Leite Cordeiro, Thuong ThuongThi Nguyen and Hyang Burm Lee. The English was reviewed by Hyang Burm Lee. The figures were arranged by Mateus Oliveira da Cruz and André Luiz Cabral Monteiro de Azevedo Santiago. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Mateus Oliveira da Cruz, André Luiz Cabral Monteiro de Azevedo Santiago, Eleni Gentekaki, Vedprakash G. Hurdeal, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript.
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da Cruz, M.O., Lee, H.B., Cordeiro, T.R.L. et al. Description of a novel coprophilous Lichtheimia (Mucoromycotina, Mucorales) species with notes on Lichtheimia species and an identification key for the genus. Mycol Progress 23, 2 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11557-023-01937-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11557-023-01937-x