Diversity of soil-borne Gliocladiopsis from Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam

Gliocladiopsis comprises a diverse group of soil-borne fungi predominantly found in tropical and subtropical regions of the world. This study investigated Gliocladiopsis strains collected from soil samples across three Southeast Asian countries, namely, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam. Morphological characteristics and multi-gene phylogenetic analyses based on four loci (ITS, TEF1, TUB2, and HIS3) were used to identify the strains. Eleven Gliocladiopsis spp., including a novel taxon, Gliocladiopsis vietnamensis sp. nov., were identified. The six species, G. curvata, G. forsbergii, G. guangdongensis, G. irregularis, G. whileyi and G. wuhanensis, are newly reported in Vietnam, G. curvata in Malaysia, andG. mexicana in Indonesia. This study has significantly expanded the known diversity of Gliocladiopsis in Southeast Asia. The results also suggest that Southeast Asia is a biodiversity hotspot for this genus, highlighting the importance of further research to explore fungal diversity in understudied tropical and subtropical ecosystems.