<i>Paraloratospora edkuensis</i> sp. nov. (Ascomycota, Phaeosphaeriaceae) from the brackish Lake Edku, Egypt

Abstract In this study, we introduce a novel saprobic taxon Paraloratospora edkuensis , from a decaying stem of Phragmites australis collected at Lake Edku, El-Behera Governorate, Egypt. Multi-locus analyses of the combined ITS (internal transcribed spacers of rDNA), LSU (nuclear large subunit rDNA) and tef 1-α (translation elongation factor) sequence data placed the new taxon within Paraloratospora as a phylogenetically distinct species in a clade containing two aquatic species P . fructigena and P . marina . The new species is characterized by having globose to subglobose, dark brown to black ascomata with a short neck, 4–8-spored, cylindrical to obclavate asci, and 3-septate, hyaline and fusiform ascospores. Paraloratospora edkuensis differs from P . fructigena and P . marina by having smaller ascomata with a single neck, asci with four or eight ascospores, different mycelial colony morphology, and nucleotide differences of 2.1–3 %, 0.6–1.4 %, and 1.3–6.9 % in the ITS, LSU and tef 1-α genes, respectively.