Fungalpedia – Note 3220, Ascocodinaceae
Ascocodinaceae. D.F. Bao, K.D. Hyde and Z.L. Luo.
Citation when using this data: Bao DF et al. 2023 – Fungalpedia.
Index Fungorum, Facesoffungi, MycoBank, GenBank
Classification: Incertae sedis, Hypocreomycetidae, Sordariomycetes, Pezizomycotina, Ascomycota, Fungi
Etymology: Named after the type genus, Ascocodinaea.
Fungicolous. Sterile setae and conidiophores abundant, arising from the host surface among perithecia. Sexual morph: Perithecia forming directly on the hymenial surface, gregarious, superficial to semi-immersed, gray to black, translucent brown in 3% KOH, ovoidal, with an acute apex, collapsing deeply by lateral pinching when dry, with stiff, erect, acute, unbranched, septate, black setae arising as modified cells of the surface of the upper half of the perithecium, thick-walled. Perithecial wall translucent brown by transmitted light, thin-walled cells of textura epidermoidea at the surface. perithecial apex formed of cells enlarged and arranged in files. Ostiolar canal periphysate; periphyses continuous with the paraphyses. Paraphyses abundant among, and overreaching, mature asci, infrequently branched, septate, slightly enlarged at the tip. Asci cylindrical, 8-spored; apex with a thin ring pierced by a pore. Ascospores uniseriate with overlapping ends, ellipsoidal to fusiform, slightly curved, multi-septate, central cells translucent brown and end cells hyaline, smooth-walled. Asexual morph: Conidiophores macronematous, mononematous, stiff, erect, unbranched, black, morphologically indistinguishable from the sterile setae, each bearing a single, terminal, integrated conidiogenous cell. Conidiogenous cells monophialidic, enteroblastic, proliferating percurrently or sympodially; tip not flared, with slight periclinal thickening at the conidiogenous locus. Conidia broadly ellipsoidal, cylindrical, or inequilateral, often slightly curved, 0–1-septate, hyaline, lacking a visible basal abscission scar, smooth-walled, held in a drop of hyaline slime at the tip of each conidiophore (Samuels et al. 1997).
Notes: Ascocodinaea was introduced by Samuels et al. (1997) to accommodate two fungicolous species, Ascocodinaea polyporicola and A. stereicola (type). Previously, the placement of Ascocodinaea was not well-resolved. Ascocodinaea was originally placed in Lasiosphaeriaceae (Sordariales), based on similar morphological characters with Lasiosphaeriaceae, such as the dark, setose, pseudoparenchymatic ascomata and dematiaceous phialidic asexual morphs (Samuels et al. 1997). Réblová et al. (1999) transferred Ascocodinaea to Chaetosphaeriaceae based on characters of asci, ascospores and perithecial and the dictyochaeta-like asexual morph. Huhndorf et al. (2004) provided a phylogenetic analysis for Sordariales based on LSU sequence data and the result showed that the placement of Ascocodinaea is far from Lasiosphaeriaceae and had close affinities to Glomerella (Collectotrichum). Thus, Ascocodinaea was excluded from Lasiosphaeriaceae and treated as genus incertae sedis in Hypocreomycetidae (Lumbsch and Huhndorf 2007; Wijayawardene et al. 2012). Maharachchikumbura et al. (2015) placed Ascocodinaea in Glomerellales genera incertae sedis, which was accepted by later studies (Maharachchikumbura et al. 2016; Wijayawardene et al. 2017; Hyde et al. 2020).
Only LSU sequence is available for A. stereicola; in our LSU phylogenetic analysis Ascocodinaea stereicola clustered as a distinct clade and sister to Plectosphaerellacea. In our multi-locus phylogenetic analysis, Ascocodinaea stereicola formed a distinct lineage within Glomerellales (Bao DF et al. 2023). Currently, only A. polyporicola and A. stereicola are accepted to the genus, and sequence data of A. polyporicola were not available in the GenBank. However, A. polyporicola differs from A. stereicola in having larger ascospores, conidia and conidiophores, finer and much more intricately branched paraphyses (Samuels et al. 1997).
Morphologically, Ascocodinaea differs from Australiascaceae in having uniseriate ascospores with translucent brown central cells and hyaline end cells and broadly ellipsoidal, cylindrical, or inequilateral, 0–1-septate conidia. While, ascospores of Australiascaceae are biseriate, hyaline and conidia are ellipsoid to cylindrical ellipsoidal, septate, aggregated in slime or in chains. Ascocodinaea can be easily distinguished from Glomerellaceae by the uniseriate, multi-septate, ascospores with translucent brown central cells and hyaline end cells. However, ascospores of Glomerellaceae are uni- to biseriate, hyaline and aseptate, in addition, conidia of Glomerellaceae sometimes have a filiform appendage, the base is rounded to truncate, sometimes with a prominent hilum, a character were not found in Ascocodinaea (Maharachchikumbura et al. 2016; Hyde et al. 2020). Ascocodinaea differs from Reticulascaceae in having unbranched conidiophores and broadly ellipsoidal or inequilateral, 0–1-septate conidia, whereases, conidiophores of Reticulascaceae are branched or unbranched and conidia are pyriform to cylindrical, 1- or multi-septate. In addition, conidiogenous cells of Ascocodinaea have proliferating percurrent growth; this was not observed in Reticulascaceae (Réblová et al. 2011). Malaysiascaceae differs from Australiascaceae in having bi-seriate, hyaline ascospores that become 1-septate and pale brown after discharge. Ascocodinaea is different from Plectosphaerellaceae in having asci with a thin ring pierced by a pore and uniseriate with overlapping ends ascospores with translucent brown central cells and hyaline end cells. However, the asci of Plectosphaerellaceae lack an apical ring, and ascospores are irregularly arranged, hyaline or pale brown (Maharachchikumbura et al. 2016; Giraldo and Crous 2019). Divergence time estimates showed that the stem age of Ascocodinaea is around 96.8 MYA which falls within the family range (Hyde et al. 2017). Therefore, a new family Ascocodinaceae is introduced to accommodate Ascocodinaea based on morphological and phylogenetic analyses and divergence time estimates.
Type genus: Ascocodina C.D. Viljoen, M.J. Wingf. & K. Jacobs.
Other accepted species: Species Fungorum – search Ascocodinaceae.
References
Giraldo A, Crous PW 2019 – Inside Plectosphaerellaceae. Stud Mycol 92(1):227–286.
Lumbsch HT, Huhndorf SM 2007 – Notes on ascomycete systematics. Nos. 4408–4750. Myconet 13:59–99.
Samuels GJ, Candoussau F, Magni JF 1997 – Fungicolous pyrenomycetes 2. Ascocodinaea gen. nov., and reconsideration of Litschaueria. Mycologia 89:156–162.
Entry by
Bao Dan‑Feng, College of Agriculture and Biological Science, Dali University, Dali 671003, Yunnan, P.R. China, Center of Excellence in Fungal Research, Mae Fah Luang University, Chiang Rai 57100, Thailand, Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, Faculty of Agriculture, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand.
Published online 26 September 2026