Magnaporthiopsis zoysiae H. Liu & H. Sang 2025, sp. nov.

Magnaporthiopsis zoysiae H. Liu & H. Sang sp. nov. Fig. 12 Etymology. Name refers to its host Zoysia japonica. Description from living culture CMML 20-39. Sexual morph: undetermined. Asexual morph: Sporulation observed on OA media. Conidiophores hyaline, single or sometimes branched, septate. Conidiogenous cells erect or curved, hyaline, 2.5–4 μm in width. Conidia ovoid or cylindrical, hyaline, slightly curved, 5.5–14.5 × 3.0–5.2 μm (Fig. 12 b – h). Type. Korea • South Jeolla Province, Hwasun, isolated from roots of Zoysia japonica, October 2020, H. Liu and H. Sang, holotype CMML 20-39 H (permanently preserved in a metabolically inactive state), ex-holotype CMML 20-39, ex-isotype CMML 20-92. Culture characteristics. Colony reaching 31.81 mm diam. after 7 days in darkness at 25 ° C on PDA, centre dark, margin white, mycelia frizzy (Fig. 12 a). Notes. In phylogenetic analysis of Magnaporthiopsis, based on sequences of six genes (ITS, SSU, LSU, RPB 1, TEF 1 and MCM 7), the strains used in the present study CMML 20-39 and CMML 20-92 fell into a distinct clade with a high statistical support (100 % / 1.00) (Fig. 13), sister to clades of species M. cynodontis, M. agrostidis and M. meyeri-festucae, which are all turf-grass-associated species. Morphologically, the conidial size of these two strains is larger than those of M. agrostidis (4–6 × 1 µm; Crous et al. (2015)) and M. meyeri-festucae (3–5 × 1–2.5 µm; Luo et al. (2017)). Conidia of these two strains is slightly longer than M. cynodontis (7–13 × 2–6.5 µm; Vines et al. (2020)). Therefore, based on phylogenetic analysis and morphological characteristics, Magnaporthiopsis zoysiae sp. nov. was introduced in this study.