Fungalpedia – Note 820, Acanthonitschkea
Acanthonitschkea Speg.
Citation when using this data: Huang SK et al. 2021 (in prep.) – Fungalpedia, Ascomycota.
Index Fungorum, Facesoffungi, MycoBank, GenBank, Fig. 1
Classification: Nitschkiaceae, Coronophorales, Hypocreomycetidae, Sordariomycetes, Pezizomycotina, Ascomycota, Fungi
Saprobic on wood or lichen. Sexual morph: Subiculum composed of numerous, brown to black, branched, septate, sinuous hyphae with metallic iridescence; or rigid, straight or slightly sinuous, unbranched, aseptate, brown to black spines with metallic iridescence form a dense barricade. Ascomata perithecial or without an external opening, scattered or gregarious, semi-immersed or erumpent or superficial, sitting on or in a subiculum, carbonaceous, coriaceous or membranaceous, brown to black, turbinate, cupuliform to subglobose, tuberculate, with spines similar to those on the mycelium, the apex collapsing, with periphyses inside of the inconspicuous ostioles or lacking ostioles, with or Quellkörper absent. Peridium outer layer composed of carbonaceous, black tissue; inner layer composed of membranaceous, brown to hyaline cells of textura angularis to textura prismatica, sometimes Munk pores present. Paraphyses absent. Asci 8-spored, unitunicate, clavate, apex blunt or rounded, apical ring inconspicuous, with long pedicel, evanescent. Ascospores bi-seriate to overlapping, hyaline, 0–1-septate, ellipsoidal to cylindrical, sometimes curved, smooth-walled, mostly with guttules. Asexual morph: Undetermined (adapted from Fitzpatrick 1923).
Notes – Acanthonitschkea was introduced as a genus with characteristics similar to Nitschkia, but with spiny ascomata (Spegazzini 1908, Fitzpatrick 1923). This genus includes 10 species and is typified by A. argentinensis in having spiny, tuberculate ascomata, clavate asci and allantoid ascospores (Fitzpatrick 1923, Index Fungorum 2021). Two species have available molecular data, A. argentinensis and A. tristis (Mugambi & Huhndorf 2010). In this study, these two Acanthonitschkea species are sister to Nitschkia calyculus, N. grevillii and N. tetraspora (73%ML/0.95BY).
Type species: Acanthonitschkea argentinensis Speg., Anal. Mus. nac. B. Aires, Ser. 3 17(10): 116 (1908).
Other accepted species: Species Fungorum – search Acanthonitschkea.
Figure 1 – Acanthonitschkea tristis: a–o (PRM-804846). a Material label. b Gregarious ascomata on decorticated wood. c–d Ascomata. e Ascoma cross section. f Peridium. g Munk pores (arrow). h Septate hyphae. i Asci with thick apex. j–o Ascospores; Acanthonitschkea argentinensis: p (redrawn from Subramanian & Sekar 1990). p Asci and ascospores. Scale bars: c = 2 mm, d = 500 µm, e = 200 µm, f = 50 µm, h = 20 µm, g, i, p = 10 µm, j–o = 5 µm.
References
Fitzpatrick HM. 1923 – Monograph of the Nitschkieae. Mycologia 15(1), 23–44.
Spegazzini C. 1908 – Hongos de la yerba mate. Anales del Museo Nacional de Historia Natural Buenos Aires 17(10), 111–141.
Entry by
Shi-Ke Huang, State Key Laboratory Breeding Base of Green Pesticide and Agricultural Bioengineering, Key Laboratory of Green Pesticide and Agricultural Bioengineering, Ministry of Education, Guizhou University, Guiyang 550025, China, The Engineering Research Center of Southwest Bio-Pharmaceutical Resources, Ministry of Education, Guizhou University, Guiyang 550025, Guizhou Province, China, Center of Excellence in Fungal Research, Mae Fah Luang University, Chiang Rai 57100, Thailand, School of Science, Mae Fah Luang University, Chiang Rai 57100, Thailand, The Mushroom Research Centre, Guizhou University, Guiyang 550025, China
Published online 14 September 2021