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Centro de Investigación Básica (CIBE). Merck Research Laboratories, Merck, Sharp and Dohme de España, Josefa Valcárcel 38 E-28027 Madrid, España
| ABSTRACT |
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A new coelomycete, Morinia longiappendiculata sp. nov., isolated from living stems of four plant species in central Spain, is described. The distinctive morphological characteristics of this fungus are the production of conidia with long basal and apical appendages on filiform conidiogenous cells that contrasts with the short-appendaged conidia and cylindrical conidiogenic cells of the type species, M. pestalozzioides. Comparative sequence analysis of the ITS rDNA region and fragments of the translation elongation factor 1
, actin and chitin synthase 1 genes and the study of the HPLC profiles of the M. longiappendiculata and M. pestalozzioides isolates supported the recognition of the new species. Comparison of the ITS rDNA sequences of the Morinia isolates with GenBank sequences indicated that the genus belongs to the Amphisphaeriaceae with the highest similarity to Bartalinia and Truncatella. Bresadolas original definition of M. pestalozzioides is updated by adding information on conidiogenesis and molecular data. A lectotype and epitype are designated for the species. A study of bioactive metabolites revealed that M. pestalozzioides cultures produced moriniafungin, a novel sordarin analog with potent antifungal activity.
Key words: Amphisphaeriaceae, appendaged conidia, Coelomycetes, DNA-sequencing, HPLC, moriniafungin, typification
| INTRODUCTION |
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While studying the endophytic fungi in plants in southeastern and central Spain we isolated into culture six strains producing conidia that matched the characteristics of Morinia. Preliminary morphological analysis indicated that one of the isolates differed in micromorphology. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis and DNA sequencing of fragments of actin, chitin synthase and elongation factor 1 (EF1) genes along with the ITS region indicated that the strains distinct morphology was consistently separated from the other five, which were almost identical among themselves according to the results of the DNA sequence analyses. Systematic morphological comparison of the strain that showed different HPLC profile and DNA sequences and the only strain out of the remaining five isolates that retained capacity of producing conidia in culture confirmed the differences observed in the molecular study. In addition morphological comparison with an authentic specimen of M. pestalozzioides showed that the strain having different morphological and molecular characteristics was close to M. pestalozzioides. The results supported the recognition of a new species in the genus for the rest of isolates.
In this work we describe the new endophytic species of Morinia. The type species M. pestalozzioides is redescribed based on morphology data that were absent in the original description as well as on molecular data. The taxonomic position of genus Morinia is assessed based on ITS sequence analyses. The production of moriniafungin, an antifungal diterpene glycoside, by M. pestalozzioides also is discussed.
| MATERIALS AND METHODS |
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Fungal isolation, strain identification and culture description.
Leaf and stem fragments about 1 cm long were surface-sterilized by successive dipping in ethanol 70%, hypochlorite 4%, ethanol 70% (Collado et al 1996
). Isolation plates were prepared with YM (1 g yeast extract, 10 g malt extract, 5 mg streptomycin; 50 mg terramycin, 20 g agar, 1 L distilled water) and YMC (YM + 4 mg cyclosporin A). Plates were incubated at 22 C and 80% relative humidity 23 wk. Emerging fungal colonies were transferred individually to potato-dextrose agar (PDA, Difco) purification plates. The agar media used for morphological characterization and culture description were PDA, oatmeal agar (OTM, Difco) and cornmeal agar (CMA, Difco). Purification and characterization plates were incubated 21 d under the same conditions as isolation plates. In addition Morinia isolates were subcultured up to three times on PDA for 21 d to assess the variation in the morphology associated with colony transfer. For morphological analysis microscope slides were prepared from sporulated cultures on PDA and examined with a Leitz Diaplan microscope equipped with differential interference contrast optics. Morphology data were reported as the range of 20 measurements of each character. Morinia strains were compared morphologically with a herbarium specimen of M. pestalozzioides from Artemisia camphorata Vill., U.S. National Fungus Collections, Beltsville, Maryland (BPI 453814). Isolates were preserved in the CIBE Culture Collection as frozen agar plugs in glycerol 10% at 80 C unless noted otherwise.
DNA extraction, PCR amplification, DNA sequencing and data analysis.
DNA extraction was performed by the methodology described in Peláez et al (1996)
. The amplification of both internal transcribed spacers (ITS1 and ITS2) and the 5.8S gene of these isolates was performed with primers ITS5 (White et al 1990
) and ITS4a (Larena et al 1998
). Amplifications of portions of the EF1, actin, and chitin synthase 1 genes were performed respectively with primers EF1-728F/EF1-986R, ACT-512F/ACT.783R and CHS-79F/CHS-354R (Carbone and Kohn 1999
).
PCR reactions were performed according to standard procedures (5 min at 93 C followed by 40 cycles of 30 s at 93 C, 30 s at 53 C and 2 min at 72 C) with Taq DNA polymerase (Q-bioGene) following the recommendations of the manufacturer. The amplification products (0.1 µg/mL) were sequenced with the Bigdye Terminators version 1.1 (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, California). For all the amplification products each strand was sequenced with the same primers used for the initial amplification. Sequencing was performed in an ABI PRISM 3700 DNA Analyzer (Applied Biosystems). The partial sequences were assembled manually and a consensus sequence was generated.
Sequences were aligned manually. Phylogenetic analysis was performed by maximum parsimony, using the branch-and-bound algorithm of PAUP 4.0 (Swofford 1993
). The robustness of the branches was assessed by bootstrap analysis (Felsenstein 1985
), resampling the data with 1000 bootstrap replicates. To asses the taxonomic position of Morinia, ITS sequences of M. pestalozzioides and M. longiappendiculata isolates were compared to a set of ITS sequences available in GenBank TreeBASE submission numbers of the DNA sequence alignments and GenBank accession numbers of the sequences analyzed in this work are provided (FIGS. 7
, 8
).
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Metabolite analysis relied on HPLC reverse-phase gradient chromatography with a diode-array HPLC detector recording simultaneously at 210 and 280 nm (Julian et al 1998
). Diode-array HPLC gradient characterizations were performed in a ZORBAX Rx-C8 4.6 x 250 mm column. A 10100% gradient of acetonitrile in water with a flow-rate gradient of 0.91.2 mL/min was programmed in a 1100 HP Agilent ChemStation at 20 C during each 20-min analysis. Trifluoroacetic acid (TFA, 0.01%) was added for pH control (Tormo et al 2003
). For analysis of the HPLC chromatograms, a relative 2% cut-off value of the total area was used as peak detection threshold. A neighbor joining dendrogram based on Dices similarity coefficients was generated with the BioNumericsTM commercial software (Tormo and García 2005
).
| RESULTS |
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, 248291 bp for actin, and 271282 bp for chitin synthase 1. The nucleotide sequence similarity between M. longiappendiculata isolates (F-095552, F-048003, F-048007, F-048041 and F-048079) was 99100% for ITS, 100% for EF1
, 100% for actin and 99100% for chitin synthase 1. The sequence similarity between M. pestalozzioides (F-090354) and M. longiappendiculata isolates was 98% for ITS, 95% for EF1
, 98% for actin and 97% for chitin synthase.
Maximum parsimony analysis of the sequences of the combined DNA markers (FIG. 7
) indicated that M. pestalozzioides (F-090,354) was genotypically distinct from M. longiappendiculata strains, and the distinction was supported by a high bootstrap value. Two subclusters were observed for M. longiappendiculata, one well supported by bootstrapping, which included strains F-048079 and F-095552, isolated from different hosts and exhibiting different colony morphology, and another with less statistical support that included the macroscopically similar F-048003 and F-048007 strains isolated from the same host species.
The comparison of the ITS sequences from Morinia isolates with fungal sequences deposited in GenBank indicated that Morinia strains were closer to species of Truncatella Steyaert and Bartalinia Tassi rather than to other species in the Amphisphaeriaceae, although this relationship is not clearly supported by bootstrapping (FIG. 8
). Notably 95% similarity was observed with Bartalinia robillardoides Tassi and 94% with Truncatella angustata (Pers.) S. Hughes.
HPLC analyses.
Metabolite profiles were compared among the six Morinia isolates (FIG. 9
). M. pestalozzioides (F-090354) clustered apart from M. longiappendiculata strains (F-048007, F-048041, F-048079, F-048003 and F-095552). M. longiappendiculata strains were metabolically heterogeneous. The highest similarity was observed between F-048003 and F-048041 strains (88.9%) and F-048079 and F-095552 strains (87.5%). F-048007 showed the most distinctive metabolite profile of the five M. longiappendiculata strains.
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| TAXONOMY |
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Mycelium branched, septate, with hyaline or greenish-yellow hyphae up to 5 µm wide. Conidiomata acervular, dark, globose to subglobose, partially immersed, sparse; wall textura angularis; conidiophores simple or branched at the base; conidiogenous cells smooth, hyaline, filiform, with several septa, 2342 x 23 µm; conidia muriform, fusiform to ellipsoid, straight to slightly curved, smooth, 2531 x 911 µm, with five or six transverse septa and 13 (mostly 2) vertical and oblique septa, versicolored, with basal and apical cells hyaline to subhyaline; median cells brown, 1720 µm long; basal cell conical, with a single appendage, 1525 µm long, attached either in central or lateral position; apical cell hemispherical, crowned with three (rarely two) single cellular appendages, straight or slightly curved, 1426.
Specimens examined. SPAIN. SEGOVIA: Riaza. In living stems of Calluna vulgaris (L.) Hull, Jan 1999, V. González. (HOLOTYPE: MA), MA-Fungi-61115, dried culture of CBS 117603 (=F-095552). (EX-TYPE: CBS), living culture, CBS 117603.
Etymology. Latin longus, appendix = conidia bearing long appendages.
Colonies of M. longiappendiculata (F-095552) on PDA attaining 32 mm; flat, glabrous, with radial grooves, yellowish brown (5E5, 5F5) (Kornerup and Wanscher 1978), becoming yellowish white (4A2) at the edge, margin irregular; reverse dark blond (5D4); hyaline exudates produced predominantly at the center. Colonies on OTM 65 mm diam; flat, floccose; grayish brown (5C3) at the center, becoming grayish orange (5B3) toward the edge; margin regular; reverse centrally colored in golden yellow (5B7) and orange gray (5B2) in outer parts; exudate hyaline. Colonies on CMA attaining 48 mm; flat; aerial mycelium scant, more abundantly produced toward the center; hyaline; margin somewhat irregular; reverse hyaline, with center brownish orange (6C5); exudate hyaline. Odors absent in all media. Diffusible pigment brownish orange (6C8), sometimes visible around the colony in PDA cultures.
Morinia pestalozzioides Berl. & Bres., Ann. Soc. Alpinisti Tridentini 14:81.[188788]. 1889. FIGS. 1315
Rinomia pestalozzioides (Berl. & Bres.) Nieuwl. [as pestalozziodes], Am. Midl. Nat. 4: 381. 1916.
= Pestalotia (Pestalozziana) artemisiae Pass., Atti R. Accad. Lincei, Sci. fisiche. mat. nat., Ser. 4:7, fasc. 2, 51. 1891.
Mycelium branched, septate, with hyaline and olive yellow hyphae 5 µm wide. Conidiomata acervular, globose; textura angularis; conidiophores lining the cavity of the conidioma, simple or branched at the base; conidiogenous cells smooth, hyaline, cylindrical, septate, 1019 x 23 µm. Conidia muriform, ellipsoid, pyriform, straight to slightly curved, smooth, 2025 x 68 µm, with 6 or 7 transverse septa and 1 or 2 vertical and oblique septa; versicolored, with basal and apical cells hyaline to subhyaline; median cells brown, 1517 µm long; basal cell conic, mostly lacking appendages but sometimes bearing one more or less central short cellular appendage (rarely two and lateral) 3 µm long; apical cell hemispherical, crowned with three single cellular appendages, straight or slightly curved, 911 µm long. Teleomorph not observed.
Specimens examined. ITALY. dead stems of Artemisia camphorata Vill., Apr 1888, Bresadola. (LECTO-TYPE: BPI), microscope slide, BPI 453814. SPAIN. ALMERÍA: Sierra Alhamilla. In living stems of Sedum sediforme (Jacq.) Pau, Sep 1998, J. Collado & F. Arenal (EPITYPE: MA), MA-Fungi-61116, dried culture of ATCC No. PTA-3862 (= F-090354). (EXTYPE: ATCC), living culture, ATCC No. PTA-3862.
Colonies of M. pestalozzioides F-090354 on PDA attaining 30 mm; wrinkled, with radial grooves; center velvety, olive gray (3D2), with brown (7E8) exudates and surrounded by olive (3E8) mycelium; colony edge two-colored, with and external white ring that surrounds an olive (2E4) fringe; margin irregular; reverse light brown (6D4); diffusible light brown (7D7) pigment produced. Odors absent. Colonies on OTM 70 mm diam; flat, velvety to slightly floccose; with alternate pinkish white (7A2) and grayish red (7B3) fringes disposed concentrically; margin somewhat irregular; odors and exudates absent; reverse brownish yellow (5C8); soluble pigments absent. Colonies on CMA 65 mm diam; aerial mycelium poorly developed; flat, glabrous, hyaline, with a small area of white mycelium in the center; margin regular; reverse colorless; soluble pigments absent; odors and exudates absent.
| DISCUSSION |
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M. longiappendiculata F-095552 produces larger and more fusiform conidia than M. pestalozzioides (TABLE III
). Both basal and apical appendages are much longer in M. longiappendiculata than in M. pestalozzioides conidia. Furthermore the conidia in M. longiappendiculata are generated on filiform conidiogenous cells, in contrast with the cylindrical shape of the conidiogenous cells in M. pestalozzioides (FIGS. 1015
). Despite the fact that only one out of the five M. longiappendiculata isolates could be compared morphologically with the M. pestalozziodes isolate due to lack of sporulation in the rest of M. longiappendiculata isolates, the contrasting morphological features, the extensive analysis of DNA sequences that indicated statistically well supported genetic differences (FIG. 7
) and the differences in HPLC profiles (FIG. 9
) led us to recognize M. longiappendiculata as a new species.
The results of ITS sequence analysis placed Morinia within the Amphisphaeriaceae. Highest homologies of the ITS rDNA sequences of our Morinia isolates were with GenBank sequences of Bartalinia and Truncatella (anamorphic Amphisphaeriaceae) species. Previously reported analyses of 28S rDNA sequences indicated that Bartalinia and Truncatella shared a common ancestor and were associated with the Amphisphaeriaceae, which includes other morphologically related genera of coelomycetes e.g., Pestalotiopsis Steyaert, Seimatosporium Corda and Seiridium Nees (Jeewon et al 2002
).
As previously mentioned we noticed variations of conidial morphology in M. longiappendiculata strains after successive colony transfer (TABLE III
). Worapong et al (2002)
reported that conidia of Pestalotiopsis microspora (Speg.) Bat. & Peres can be converted, via UV irradiation, into conidia that bear a resemblance to those of taxa like Truncatella, Monochaetia (Sacc.) Allesch. or Seiridium spp. The authors concluded that the convertibility among conidial types of such closely related coelomycete genera potentially makes current taxonomic classification schemes artificial. That conclusion was supported by a study on the relationships among Pestalotiopsis spp. in which some diagnostic morphological characters currently used in Pestalotiopsis taxonomy were proved to be phylogenetically insignificant by comparison of morphology and rDNA-based phylogenies (Jeewon et al 2003
). Except for the presence of vertical and oblique septa, Morinia conidia are almost morphologically identical to those of Pestalotiopsis. However as mentioned above the comparison of the ITS sequences of our Morinia isolates with other anamorphic Amphisphaeriaceae indicates that the genus is closer to Truncatella and Bartalinia than to Pestalotiopsis or Pestalotia de Not. The result supports the idea that taxonomic classifications of this group of coelomycetes based exclusively on morphological characters are unreliable.
Colony morphology, genotype and HPLC profile were not well correlated among M. longiappendiculata strains (TABLE II
, FIGS. 7
and 9
). Isolates F-048003 and F-048007 produced similar colonies on PDA and clustered together in the alignment of the DNA sequences, although this was not clearly supported by bootstrapping. Nevertheless metabolite production was qualitatively different in the two strains. On the other hand a correlation between DNA sequence and HPLC profile was observed for isolates F-048079 and F-095552, which exhibited different colony morphology. Strains F-048003 and F-048007 were isolated from the same host, Santolina rosmarinifolia and as mentioned above presented similar gross morphology and DNA sequence. We did not find additional relationships among any of the morphological and molecular markers and the host.
During screening of antifungal metabolites in our laboratory a compound with antifungal activity in MEK extracts of M. pestalozzioides (F-090354) cultures in OP26-NLW was observed. The compound was detected at RT = 15.085 min in the HPLC chromatogram (data not shown) and corresponded to a novel sordarin analog named moriniafungin after the fungus. Moriniafungin is a new protein synthesis inhibitor targeting the eukaryotic elongation factor 2, which has wider antifungal spectrum and lower minimal inhibitory concentration value than sordarin (Basilio et al 2005
). The production of moriniafungin in culture was not observed in M. longiappendiculata isolates or in strains of taxonomically related fungi such as Bartalinia, Truncatella and Pestalotiopsis spp.
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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| FOOTNOTES |
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1 Corresponding author. E-mail: javier_colladomartinez{at}merck.com
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