Aurosphaeria, a novel coelomycetous genus

An endophytic pycnidial producing fungus was isolated from Drosera montana, growing in the Heath River area of the Bolivian Amazon. Based on morphological characteristics of the pycnidium, the nature of the conidiophores and conidial structure as well surprisingly unique DNA sequence data on this fungus, a new genus, Aurosphaeria, is described. The nearest genetic neighbor is Stemphylium sp. with a query coverage of 87% and a maximum identity of 89%. This fungus is not morphologically related to Aurosphaeria. Morphologically, the most similar fungus is Hapalosphaeria sp.; however, Aurosphaeria deviates from Hapalosphaeria by its unique phialidic conidiophores, the presence of decorative hyphal tufts on the pycnidia, and other features that are herein described. Biochemically, A. flaviradians is of interest as it produces copious quantities of brefeldin A, a biologically active compound, in liquid culture.