Fungalpedia – Note 874, Fusoidigranularius
Fusoidigranularius W. Dong, H. Zhang & K.D. Hyde
Citation when using this data: Dong W et al. 2021 (in prep.) – Fungalpedia, Ascomycota.
Index Fungorum, Facesoffungi, MycoBank, GenBank.
Classification: Annulatascaceae, Annulatascales, Diaporthomycetidae, Sordariomycetes, Pezizomycotina, Ascomycota, Fungi
Etymology – in reference to its fusoid ascospores with a large granular sheath
Saprobic on submerged wood. Sexual morph: Ascomata solitary or gregarious, immersed, obpyriform, oriented horizontally to the host substrate, black, coriaceous, with ostiolate papilla, with an upward bend, relatively long neck growing laterally, periphysate. Peridium comprising several layers of thick-walled, flattened cells of textura angularis, outer layer dark brown and encrusted with pigmented particles, hyaline and unencrusted inwardly. Paraphyses rarely septate, hyaline, unbranched, tapering distally. Asci 8-spored, unitunicate, cylindrical, long pedicellate, persistent, with a large, refractive, J-, apical ring. Ascospores uniseriate to overlapping uniseriate, fusoid, 5–9(–11)-septate, hyaline, smooth-walled, with a large, gelatinous, irregular, granular sheath. Asexual morph: Undetermined.
Notes – Annulatascus nilensis was collected from submerged stems of Phragmites australis in the river Nile in Egypt (Abdel-Wahab et al. 2011). It clustered with Annulatascus species with weak bootstrap support, and was placed in Annulatascus based on limited data (Abdel-Wahab et al. 2011). Annulatascus nilensis appears to have typical morphological characteristics of Annulatascus, such as cylindrical asci, long pedicel, and a large, refractive apical ring (Abdel-Wahab et al. 2011). However, A. nilensis has immersed ascomata that oriented horizontally to the host substrate and with an upwardly bending neck growing laterally, which are distinctive from Annulatascus, and even from Annulatascaceae. In addition, A. nilensis has 5–9(–11)-septate ascospores with an irregular, granular sheath that differ from Annulatascus species, including our three new species. Phylogenetically, A. nilensis forms a separated clade from Annulatascus, which corroborates other studies (Hyde et al. 2018, 2020, Luo et al. 2019). The new genus Fusoidigranularius is, therefore, established to accommodate A. nilensis based on distinct morphology and phylogenetic analyses.
The ascomata lying horizontally is the key feature of two annulatascaceae-like families, Atractosporaceae and Pseudoproboscisporaceae. However, the ascomata of Atractosporaceae and Pseudoproboscisporaceae are semi-immersed to nearly superficial and they have aseptate or few septate ascospores (Zhang et al. 2017). A new collection of Fluminicola saprophytica (MFLUCC 18-1244) found in this study also has immersed ascomata that oriented horizontally to the host substrate and with an upward bend neck growing laterally (Fig. 1), which are similar to Fusoidigranularius. However, they can be distinguished by septation and shape of ascospores. Although Fusoidigranularius has a weak relationship with Annulatascaceae members, it is temporarily placed in Annulatascaceae based on current phylogenetic analysis.
Type species – Fusoidigranularius nilensis (Abdel-Wahab & Abdel-Aziz) W. Dong, H. Zhang & K.D. Hyde.
Other accepted species: Species Fungorum – search Fusoidigranularius.
Figure 1 – Fluminicola saprophytica (MFLU 18-1567). a Appearance of necks of ascomata on host. b Structure of peridium. c, d Vertical sections of ascomata. e, f Unitunicate asci.
g, h Ascospores in Indian Ink. i Ascospore in water. j, k Colony on PDA (left-front, right-reverse). Scale bars: b, h, i = 10 μm, c, d = 50 μm, e–g = 20 μm.
References
Entry by
Wei Dong, Faculty of Agriculture and Food, Kunming University of Science & Technology, Kunming 650500, China, Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, Faculty of Agriculture, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand, Innovative Agriculture Research Center, Faculty of Agriculture, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand, Center of Excellence for Fungal Research, Mae Fah Luang University, Chiang Rai 57100, Thailand, Innovative Institute for Plant Health, Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering, Haizhu District, Guangzhou 510225, China
Published online 15 February 2021