Fine Identification and Classification of a Novel Beneficial Fungal Species from Masson Pine Rhizosphere Soil.

Rhizosphere fungi have the beneficial functions of promoting plant growth and protecting plants from pests and pathogens. In our preliminary study, rhizosphere fungus JP-NJ4 was obtained from the soil rhizosphere of and selected for further analyses to confirm its functions of phosphate solubilization and plant growth promotion. In order to comprehensively investigate the function of this strain, it is necessary to ascertain its taxonomic position. With the help of genealogical concordance phylogenetic species recognition (GCPSR) using five genes/regions (ITS, , , , and ) as well as macro-morphological and micro-morphological characters, we accurately determined the classification status of strain JP-NJ4. The concatenated phylogenies of five (or four) gene regions and single gene phylogenetic trees (ITS, , , , and genes) all show that strain JP-NJ4 clustered together with and , but differ markedly in the genetic distance (in gene) from type strain and multiple collections of . and . . The morphology of JP-NJ4 largely matches the characteristics of genes , and the rich and specific morphological information provided by its colonies was different from that of and . In addition, strain JP-NJ4 could produce reduced conidiophores consisting of solitary phialides. From molecular and phenotypic data, strain JP-NJ4 was identified as a putative novel fungal species, designated .