Samantha C. Karunarathna

Qujing Normal University · Center for Yunnan Plateau Biological Resources Protection and Utilization

Uromyces is the second-largest plant pathogenic rust genus, is responsible for numerous diseases, and has major effects on both agricultural and non-agricultural plants. The genus is generally characterized by its unicellular teliospores that help to characterize it and distinguish it from another important rust genus, Puccinia. In this study, a gl...

Insect herbivores have a variety of life cycles and feeding habits, making them extremely diverse. With their host plants, they form close relationships and suppress their defense mechanisms. Molecular elicitors are the key bio-elements in the detection and recognition of attacking enemies in tissue consumption. Insect oral secretion, frass, and fl...

Aquatic pollution is considered a major threat to sustainable development across the world, and deterioration of aquatic ecosystems is caused usually by harmful algal blooms (HABs). In recent times, HABs have gained attention from scientists to better understand these phenomena given that these blooms are increasing in intensity and distribution wi...

Fungi are a diverse eukaryotic group that is distributed throughout the world. Many mycologists have identifi ed Thailand as a hot spot for the discovery of novel macrofungal taxa. Currently, a combination of morphological and molecular data is required for correct macrofungal identifi cation. Traditionally, Thai macrofungi have been studied and de...

The Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) is a global biodiversity hotspot and habitat for many ecologically and economically important mushrooms species. The diversity of mushrooms in the GMS has been studied and published in different journals, and many have been documented from different countries in the GMS region but data remain mostly fragmented. A...

As a main component of soil microbiota arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) play a benefi cial role in the agro-ecosystems. Introduction of AMF inoculum as a biofertilizer to the rice cultivation system is one of the environmentally healthy solutions that may increase crop productivity and yield, when compare to the non-AMF relationships. Within an e...

A total of approximately 104,000 fungal species can be expected in Yunnan. However, approximately 6000 fungal species have been reported from the province leaving much to be described. This study introduces a new species, Fitzroyomyces xishuangbannaensis sp. nov and a new collection of Fit. cyperacearum from Yunnan province, China. The taxa were ch...

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are soil-borne fungi that form mutualistic symbiosis with plant roots, and can signifi cantly improve plant nutrient uptake and increase resistance to several biotic and abiotic stresses. Though most rice cultivation systems involved submerged growing conditions, researchers are exploring the potential of AMF colo...

Grasses are cosmopolitan yet an important component in ecology. The current human population readily relies on grasses as many Poaceae species provide staple carbohydrate sources and staple feed to livestock. Ecologically grass plays a vital role as a pioneer inhabitant as well as sustaining immense biodiversity within the community. Fungi play a p...

Two Pseudoberkleasmium taxa were obtained from decaying leaves and culms of Cocos nucifera and Zea mays in northern Thailand. Pseudoberkleasmium collections were compared with closely related taxa based on morphological characteristics and combined ITS, LSU, SSU, TEF1-α, and RPB2 DNA sequence data. Pseudoberkleasmium chiangraiense sp. nov. and a ne...

Insect herbivores have a wide range of life cycles and feeding habits, making them extremely diverse. With their host plants, they form close relationships and suppress their defense mecha-nisms. Molecular elicitors are the key bio-elements in detection and recognition of attacking enemies in tissue consumption. Insect oral secretion, frass, and fl...

Agarwood, a precious natural product, can be defined as fragrant dark resinous heartwood of diseased timber of Aquilaria and Gyrinops. Agarwood has been used for thousands of years in several countries as incense, perfumes, and multifunctional pharmaceutical product. The main compounds in agarwood include sesquiterpenes, 2-(2-phenylethyl)-4H-chrome...

A dead Asian House Gecko, infected with multiple species of fungi, was found floating in a jug of water inside a building in Kunming, China. The dead gecko was taken to the mycology laboratory at the Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences and different fungal species were isolated. Phylogenetic analyses were carried out on the res...

The global diversity of fungi has been estimated using several different approaches. There is somewhere between 2–11 million estimated species, but the number of formally described taxa is around 150,000, a tiny fraction of the total. In this paper, we examine 12 ascomycete genera as case studies to establish trends in fungal species descriptions,...

Environmental changes and heavy metal pollution are some of the consequences of anthropogenic activities. Many ecosystems, including edaphic ecosystems, suffer from the effects of pollution. The accurate assessment of soil heavy metal contamination leads to better approaches for remediating soils. The exploration of different ways, including biolog...

This is the seventh in a series of Mycosphere notes in which we provide notes on the collection of fungi isolated from various hosts. In this set of notes, we introduce Pseudophialocephala as a new genus, nine new species, 27 new host or country records and five new combinations. The new species are Ceratosphaeria yunnanensis, Cytospora salicis-alb...

Arabica coffee (Coffea arabica) accounting for about 60% of the world’s coffee is popular all over the world as a refreshing beverage and food additive. During surveys of fungi occurring on coffee plants, we collected a species of Neohendersoniaceae on dead twigs of an Arabica coffee plant in Pu’er, Yunnan Province, China. Phylogenetic analyses of...

Bacterial wilt caused by Ralstonia solanacearum is a devastating disease of flue-cured tobacco production which poses significant yield losses all around the world. In this study, we evaluated the rhizosphere microbiome of healthy and bacterial wilt-infected (diseased) flue-cured tobacco plants through amplification of V3-V4 and ITS1-5f variable re...

The association of endophytic fungi with the host plant is called a symbiotic relationship. Studies of the endophytic fungi from tea have been reported in numerous documents, but researchers still largely focus on tea endophytic fungi as they have ability to produce bioactive compounds which have numerous applications. The present work characterize...

A Corrigendum on: Defeating Huanglongbing Pathogen Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus With Indigenous Citrus Endophyte Bacillus subtilis L1-21 by Munir, S., Li, Y., He, P., He, P., He, P., Cui, W., Wu, Y., Li, X., Li, Q., Zhang, S., Xiong, Y., Lu, Z., Wang, W., Zong, K., Yang, Y., Yang, S., Mu, C., Wen, H., Wang, Y., Guo, J., Karunarathna, S. C., an...

Coffee is grown in more than 80 countries as a cash crop and consumed worldwide as a beverage and food additive. It is susceptible to fungal infection during growth, processing and storage. Fungal infections, in particular, can seriously affect the quality of coffee and threaten human health. The data for this comprehensive review were collected fr...

Although biofertilizers have been used for an exceptionally long time, challenges still remain in using them to phase out chemical fertilizers. Chemical fertilizers generate environmental pollution and negatively impact beneficial organisms as well as human and animal wellbeing, causing a paradigm shift towards safer improved biofertilizers. Hence,...

Fungal taxonomy research, and specifically the study of macro and micro morphological characteristics, requires precise temperature control. This is because variation in temperature can affect macrofungal microstructures. Understanding the appropriate temperature range for drying macrofungal fruitbodies is crucial to ensure consistent reports betwe...

Seven species of bioluminescent mushrooms belonging to seven genera have been described in the tropical rainforests of China. This study contributes the eighth species, found growing on decaying bamboo in Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG). Morphological characteristics and phylogenetic analyses using internal transcribed spacer (ITS) a...

Agarwood is a fragrant dark resin produced in plants belonging to the family Thyme-laeaceae and which has a high economic value. The unique fragrance and medicinal applications intensify the value of agarwood. The wild populations of agarwood trees are highly threatened by high economic demand. Therefore, it is worthwhile to develop an artificial a...

Sri Lanka is rich in biological diversity, but its fungal diversity is not adequately studied and documented. Recent fungal diversity estimations have predicted that the tropical regions would harbour a large number of novel fungal species. Fungi are ubiquitous, hence it is important to carry out proper investigations to discover novel taxa in diff...

As a result of an ongoing research survey of microfungi in Yunnan, China, several saprobic ascomycetes were collected from various host substrates. Preliminary morphological analyses identified a few of these taxa as Periconia species. We obtained DNA sequence data of the Periconia species from pure cultures and investigated their phylogenetic affi...

Chemical fertilizers have been extensively used in Sri Lanka, and they have contributed to the pollution of groundwater and soil. Therefore, a field experiment was conducted to reduce the potential risk of toxic metal contamination of rice farming through sustainable nutrient management, with the scope of replacing the conventional chemical fertili...

This paper provides an updated classification of the Kingdom Fungi (including fossil fungi) and fungus-like taxa. Five-hundred and twenty-three (535) notes are provided for newly introduced taxa and for changes that have been made since the previous outline. In the discussion, the latest taxonomic changes in Basidiomycota are provided and the class...

Tubeufiaceae, a cosmopolitan family with a worldwide distribution, is mostly reported as saprobic on decaying woody materials from both aquatic and terrestrial habitats. The family is commonly found as helicosporous hyphomycetes, while some are chlamydosporous and phragmosporous. In this study, thirteen helicosporous hyphomycetes were collected fro...

Seven species of bioluminescent mushrooms belonging to seven genera have been described in the tropical rainforests of China. This study contributes the eighth species, found growing on decaying bamboo in Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG). Morphological characteristics and phylogenetic analyses using internal transcribed spacer (ITS) a...

Pleosporales is the largest fungal order with a worldwide distribution in terrestrial and aquatic environments. During investigations of saprobic fungi associated with mango (Mangifera indica)) in Baoshan and Honghe, Yunnan, China, fungal taxa belonging to pleosporales were collected. Morphological examinations and phylogenetic analyses of ITS, LSU...

Agarwood, a dark resin heartwood, is known as one of the most expensive natural products on the planet. In China, agarwood is mainly produced by Aquilaria sinensis (Lour.) Spreng. (Thymelaeaceae). Fungal inoculation is the primary mechanism to artificially induce agarwood production. In this study, endophytic fungi were collected and isolated from...

Huanglongbing (HLB) has turned into a devastating botanical pandemic of citrus crops, caused by Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus (CLas). However, until now the disease has remained incurable with very limited control strategies available. Restoration of the affected microbiomes in the diseased host through the introduction of an indigenous endophy...

During a survey of rubber tree plantations in Yunnan Province, China, a fungus growing on natural rubber latex was collected and isolated. Maximum likelihood and Bayesian analyses of combined ITS, LSU, SSU, tef-α and rpb2 genes showed the isolated taxon belongs to Wiesneriomycetaceae and was well separated from closely related genera with high stat...

Symbiosis among microorganisms represents an interesting relationship that takes different shapes. Obligatory, facultative, and endosymbiotic relationships have all been reported between different microorganisms. Whether it is mutualism, commensalism, amensalism, or parasitism, understanding every association is of great importance to science and h...

Fungi are vital functional members of the biosphere, playing a crucial role in sustaining ecosystems by maintaining the nutrient balance. Many studies have verified the abundance of fungi across all-natural ecosystems and habitats, such as in forests, fresh-water (including both lentic or lotic), marine environments and deserts. With the focus prev...

In agricultural lands, long-term chemical inputs for the purpose of disease control result in both chronic and acute negative effects, such as environment pollution, human health complications, and spray-resistant pest populations (Aktar et al., 2009). For sustainable agriculture, biotechnological products are developed using targeted fungal specie...

Coffee, an important economic crop, is often threatened by fungal infections. During a survey of coffee fungi in Yunnan Province, China, two saprobic Stictidaceae species were collected. Maximum likelihood (ML) and Bayesian posterior probability of combined LSU, ITS and mtSSU genes supported the placement of our fungal collections within Fitzroyomy...

The ectomycorrhizal basidiomycetes genus Thelephora has been understudied in subtropical ecosystems. Many species of Thelephora are important edible and medicinal fungi, with substantial economic value. Two new Thelephora species, T. grandinioides and T. wuliangshanensis spp. nov. are proposed here based on a combination of morphological features a...

Pleurotus mushrooms are the third largest commercially produced and the second most important cultivated mushroom in the world, consisting of about 539 species. This comprises 25% of total world production of cultivated mushrooms. Pleurotus mushrooms possess various nutritional and medicinal values. The fruitbodies of Pleurotus are rich in unique f...

Mycorrhizae are symbiotic associations between a soil-borne fungus and plant root. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are the most common type of mycorrhizal associations occurring in plants. AMF can increase plant growth mainly by improving nutrient uptake and making plants resistant to several biotic and abiotic stresses. Thus, AMF could be refer...

Wild edible fungi (WEF), including mushrooms and truffles, comprise a natural source of nutritious and healthy food. The consumption of WEF began at least 18,700 years ago during the Stone Age. Current data from over 100 countries indicates the existence of more than 2,100 edible species, a figure that is continually growing, as vast regions and ma...

A new species of Koorchaloma is described based on morphology and multigene phylogenetic analyses of ITS, LSU and RPB2. Phylogenetic analyses showed our strain clusters with K. europaea with moderate statistical support. Koorchaloma oryzae sp. nov. is morphologically similar to K. europaea, but it can be distinguished by the conidiophores and conid...

Guizhou and Yunnan Provinces (Yungui Plateau) in Southwestern China are well known as biodiversity hotspots. We introduce two new species in this study viz., Mucispora hydei (in Fuscosporellaceae, Fuscosporellales, Sordariomycetes) and Tolypocladium cucullae (Ophiocordycipitaceae, Hypocreales, Sordariomycetes) and six new records based on morpho-mo...

The genus Apiospora is known as a cosmopolitan genus, found across various substrates. In this study, four Apiospora taxa were obtained from the decaying stems of bamboo and maize in northern Thailand. Apiospora collections were compared with known species based on the morphological characteristics and the DNA sequence data of internal transcribed...

The cosmopolitan fungal genus Ganoderma is an important pathogen on arboreal plant hosts, particularly in tropical and temperate regions. It has long been used as a traditional medicine because of its medicinal properties and chemical constituents. In this study, Ganoderma collections were made in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS), encompassing tr...

Sequencing of the type species of Arthopyrenia places Arthopyreniaceae as a synonym of Trypetheliaceae. Mycosphere 12(1), 993-1011, Doi 10.5943/mycosphere/X/X/X Abstract Arthopyrenia sensu lato comprises lichenicolous, lichenized and non-lichenized saprotrophic species; however, the lifestyle of several taxa as either lichenized or saprotrophic rem...

During our ongoing studies of bambusicolous fungi in southwest China and Thailand, three saprobic pleosporalean taxa were discovered on bamboos in Yunnan Province of China. Occultibambusa hongheensis and Seriascoma bambusae spp. nov. are introduced based on morphological characteristics coupled with multi-locus phylogenetic analyses of combined LSU...

Mendogia belongs to Dothideomycetes and its members are epiphytic on living bamboo culms or palms and distributed in tropical regions. Currently, the genus comprises seven species. Another collection resembling Mendogia was collected from the leaves of Fagales sp. in Thailand. Morphological characteristics and multilocus phylogenetic analyses, usin...

species are now emergent as potential plant pathogens. The latter can represent a major threat to staple crops such as rice, wheat, maize and potatoes either during cultural practices or during the post-harvest/storage stages (Alshannaq and Yu, 2017). If these pathogens are not detected and accurately identified in a timely matter and targeted dise...

Ophioceras is accommodated in the monotypic family Ophioceraceae (Magnaporthales, Sordariomycetes), and the genus is delimited based on molecular data. During an ongoing survey of bambusicolous fungi in southwest China, we collected a submerged decaying branch of bamboo from Sichuan Province, China and an Ophioceras species occurring on this substr...

A dead woody sample of Acer sp. with fungal fruiting bodies was collected in Pu’er City of Yunnan Province. Multigene phylogenetic analyses of LSU, ITS, SSU, and tef1-α sequence data showed that our collection belongs to Montagnula and is well separated from all other extant species. Montagnula puerensis is compared with all extant species by morph...

Grasslands are major primary producers and function as major components of important watersheds. Although a concise definition of grasslands cannot be given using a physiognomic or structural approach, grasslands can be described as vegetation communities experiencing periodical droughts and with canopies dominated by grasses and grass-like plants....

Industrial soil contamination negatively affects flora and fauna in the soil. Nevertheless, some fungi have the ability to survive in such polluted soils. In this study, we isolated fungal strains from polluted soils in industrialized areas of Kunming City, Yunnan Province, China. Fungal strains underwent morphological observations, subjected to ph...

In this paper we describe a new species of cave fungus belonging to Sporocadaceae (Amphisphaeriales), collected from Gem Cave, Fumin County, Yunnan Province, China. Initial morphological observations confirmed that our fungal collection is a pestalotioid species. Phylogenetic analyses of combined internal transcribed spacer (ITS), β-tubulin (TUB) a...

Poriella subacida gen. & comb. nov., previously known as Perenniporia subacida, which causes white rot, has been documented in temperate and tropical forests. Specimens from Asia, North America, and Europe were examined, including the type specimen of Polylorus subacidus. Sequences of the ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 region, the 28S rDNA, the mitochondrial rDNA...

Bacillus amyloliquefaciens YN201732 is an endophytic bacteria with high biocontrol efficiency and broad-spectrum antimicrobial activities. In order to clarify the main active ingredients and its antifungal mechanisms against powdery mildew of tobacco, this study is focused on lipopeptide obtained through acid precipitation and organic solvent extra...

Species of Trametes are important wood decomposers in natural ecosystems and they have been widely used as traditional medicines in Asia. In order to assess the fungal biodiversity of the Greater Mekong Subregion, surveys of Trametes were conducted in Laos. In this paper, Trametes cubensis is introduced as a new record from Laos based on morphology...

A survey of root fungi associated with Viburnum cylindricum in an open-pit phosphate mining restoration region in Yunnan, China, revealed a new country and host record. Morphological analyses and combined phylogenetic analyses of the ITS, LSU, β-tubulin and RPB2 gene sequences were performed on Paraboeremia putaminum, and is introduced herein with...