Unveiling the holomorph and novel host records of Shearia formosa ( Longiostiolaceae, Pleosporales ) in China

Shearia belongs to the Longiostiolaceae (Pleosporales, Dothideomycetes) and is typified by S. formosa. Previously, Shearia species were reported by their asexual morph, and here we introduce the first sexual morph for Shearia. We also provide the sexual-asexual linkage of S. formosa with two new host records from Magnolia sprengeri and Michelia alba from China based on morpho-molecular analyses. The sexual morph of S. formosa is characterised by having perithecial ascomata with an erumpent ostiole, cellular pseudoparaphyses and asci embedded in a gelatinous matrix, short pedicellate asci with an ocular chamber, and transversely and vertically septate spores surrounded by a thick mucilaginous sheath. Our S. formosa isolates clustered with other authentic strains of S. formosa based on maximum parsimony, maximum likelihood, and Bayesian inference analyses of the combined sequence data of 28S ribosomal RNA (LSU), 18S small subunit rDNA (SSU), RNA polymerase II second largest subunit (rpb2), and the translation elongation factor 1-alpha gene (tef).