Neurospora tetraspora D. Garcia, Stchigel & Guarro (= Gelasinospora tetrasperma Dowding) as a first record to Egypt

An interesting isolate of homothallic, ascosporic filamentous fungus having 4-spored asci, was recovered once from a non-rhizosphere soil sample collected from a grapevine plantation in the village of El-Khawaled, Sahel-Saleem city, Assiut. It was isolated on DYM agar plate at 25°C in June 2008. The isolate was identified phenotypically and genotypically as Neurospora tetraspora (= Gelasinospora tetrasperma) and was deposited in the culture collection of Assiut University Mycological Centre as AUMC no. 6784 and ITS gene sequence of the strain was deposited at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) and assigned a GenBank accession number JQ425383. N. tetraspora is being recorded in the current work for the first time in Egypt. By this addition, the genus is now known in Egypt by four species. A key is provided for the four species.