Neopestalotiopsis zakeelii Prasannath, Akinsanmi & R. G. Shivas

Neopestalotiopsis zakeelii Prasannath, Akinsanmi & R. G. Shivas, Journal of Fungi 7: 12 (2021) Fig. 30 Description. Pathogenic to persimmon (Diospyros ehretioides) and causes dark brown leaf spots. Sexual morph not observed. Conidiomata pycnidial on PDA, scattered, aggregated, immersed, or semi-immersed, with black conidial mass. Conidiophores reduced to conidiogenous cells. Conidiogenous cells hyaline, smooth, ampulliform to lageniform, 4–15 × 3–5 μm. Conidia medium to dark brown, fusiform to ellipsoidal, straight or curved, 4 - septate, 20–30 × 5–8 μm (mean = 22 × 6 μm, n = 30); basal cell conical, 2–4 μm long (mean = 3 μm), hyaline, smooth, thin-walled; basal appendage filiform, unbranched, centric, 2–4 μm long; three median cells doliiform, 11–17.5 μm (mean = 16 μm), smooth, septa darker than the rest of the cell (second cell from basal cell olivaceous to brown, 3.5–7 μm long (mean = 5.5 μm); third cell brown to dark brown, 3.5–7 μm long (mean = 5.3 μm); fourth cell medium brown, 4–7 μm long (mean = 5.5 μm)); apical cell conical to subcylindrical, 2–5 μm long (mean = 3 μm), hyaline, smooth, thin-walled, with 2–3 tubular apical appendages (mostly 2), unbranched, filiform, 6–21.5 μm long (mean = 12 μm). Basal appendage single, unbranched, tubular, centric, 2–8 μm long. Culture characteristics. Colonies on PDA reach 55–65 mm in diameter after 7 days of growth at 25 ° C under 12 h daylight, cottony, with abundant white aerial mycelium. Upper view white and the reverse primrose. Yellow pigment and black fruiting bodies appear with age on the agar medium. Material examined. Thailand • Chiang Rai Province, Mueang Chiang Rai District, Doi Hang, leaf spots on persimmon (Diospyros ehretioides), February 2023, Maryam Fallahi, dried culture MF 54-1 (MFLU 24-0256), living culture MFLUCC 24-0252. Notes. Strain MFLUCC 24-0252 clustered in the same subclade with the strains of Neopestalotiopsis zakeelii (BRIP 72282 a, holotype) with 85 % ML bootstrap support and 0.95 BYPP (Fig. 28). The base pair differences between N. zakeelii strains MFLUCC 24-0252 and BRIP 72282 a revealed a 0.46 % (2 / 435 bp) nucleotide difference in tef and tub 2 and no differences in ITS. Neopestalotiopsis zakeelii (MFLUCC 24-0252) is similar to the holotype of N. zakeelii in morphology. It was first reported from flower blight of Macadamia integrifolia in Australia (Prasannath et al. 2021). This study provides a new host and geographical record for N. zakeelii on persimmon in Thailand.