Abstract
Fungal specimens parasitic on ants producing Stilbella-like anamorph were collected from Thailand. Based on morphological characters and phylogenetic analyses, a new record for Ophiocordyceps buquetii and a new species, Ophiocordyceps laotii, were identified. Ophiocordyceps laotii is a pathogen specific to the ant species Dolichoderus laotius, while O. buquetii is a species distributed globally with a broad range of ant host species, occurring on Camponotus sp., Crematogaster sp., Dilobocondyla sp., Oecophylla smaragdina, Platythyrea sp., Polyrhachis illaudata, Polyrhachis sp. 1, and Polyrhachis sp. 2. Ophiocordyceps buquetii and O. laotii share the morphological character of producing multiple synnemata from ant hosts but differ in the shape of fertile head and conidia, as well as its phylogenetic placement, which clearly distinguishes these species.
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Data availability
All sequence data generated in this study (see Table 1) are available in GenBank (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genbank/).
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Acknowledgements
We are indebted to the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation for their cooperation and support of our research project. We thank the staff of Plant Microbe Interaction Research Team (Donnaya Thanakitpipattana, Artit Khonsanit, and Kanoksri Tasanathai) for collecting samples and providing specimens and cultures. We would like to thank Dr. Philip James Shaw and the anonymous reviewers whose suggestions and comments helped improve the manuscript.
Funding
This research was supported by the Platform Technology Management Section, National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (BIOTEC), Grant No. P19-50231, and Thailand Science Research and Innovation (TSRI), Grant No. 179984.
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Morphological data were collected by S. Mongkolsamrit and P. Sinchu. Specimen was collected by P. Jangsantear. Molecular data and phylogenetic analyses were performed by W. Noisripoom. Ants were identified by S. Hasin. The original manuscript draft was written by S. Mongkolsamrit and W. Noisripoom, which was revised from comments and suggestions by JJ Luangsa-ard. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Mongkolsamrit, S., Noisripoom, W., Hasin, S. et al. Multi-gene phylogeny and morphology of Ophiocordyceps laotii sp. nov. and a new record of O. buquetii (Ophiocordycipitaceae, Hypocreales) on ants from Thailand. Mycol Progress 22, 5 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11557-022-01855-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11557-022-01855-4