Taxonomic Reappraisal of Periconiaceae with the Description of Three New Species from China.

As a result of an ongoing research survey of microfungi in Yunnan, China, several saprobic ascomycetes were collected from various host substrates. Preliminary morphological analyses identified a few of these taxa as species. We obtained DNA sequence data of the species from pure cultures and investigated their phylogenetic affinities. Phylogenetic analyses of a combined LSU, ITS, SSU and sequence dataset demonstrated that five isolates of formed well-resolved subclades within Periconiaceae. Accordingly, three new species are introduced viz. , and , and new host and geographical records of and , are also reported from dead branches of and . formed a monophyletic clade with in the present phylogenetic analyses. Results of the pairwise homoplasy index (PHI) test indicated significant recombination between and . Therefore, has been synonymized under . In addition, we re-illustrated and studied the type specimen of the sexual genus . As a type species of , features similar morphology to the sexual morph of and . We therefore synonymize under based on morphological and phylogenetic evidence. Furthermore, our new isolates produced brown conidia of asexual morph in agar media typical of the genus . Based on morphological comparison with in vitro and phylogenetic status of , we also treat as a synonym of . Detailed descriptions and illustrations of three novel taxa and two new records of and as well as the illustration of comb. nov. are provided. An updated phylogenetic tree of Periconiaceae using maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference analyses is constructed. Generic circumscription of is amended.