Fungalpedia – Note 2208, Matsusporium

 

Matsusporium E.B.G. Jones & K.L. Pang

Citation when using this data: Dayarathne MC et al. 2025 – Fungalpedia, Ascomycota.

Index FungorumFacesoffungiMycoBankGenBank, Fig 1, 2

Classification: Incertae sedis, LulworthialesLulworthiomycetidae, SordariomycetesPezizomycotinaAscomycota, Fungi

Saprobic on submerged marine substrates. Sexual morph: Ascomata immersed, oval, ellipsoidal or subglobose, coriaceous, brown to dark brown, ostiolate and papillate. Peridium thick, one-layered, forming textura angularis. Necks cylindrical, brown to dark brown. Paraphyses absent. Asci 8-spored, fusiform, unitunicate, thin-walled, early deliquescing. Ascospores filamentous, curved, hyaline, tapering at each end into an elongate, conical process or apical chamber, filled with mucus that is released through an apical pore as long bifurcating filaments or ascospores end with irregular ellipsoidal or subglobose structure and apical chambers. Asexual morph: Hyphae septate, superficial or immersed, light brown. Conidiophores obsolete or present, when present micronematous, cylindrical, light-brown, cylindrical, septate, acrogenous or lateral. Conidia acrogenous or lateral, solitary, helicoid, up to 12 septate, immature conidia are surrounded by sheath, dark-brown to black, not constricted at the septa, cells increasing in diameter and pigmentation from the base to the apex.

Notes: Initially it was a monotypic marine asexual genus in the Lulworthiales (Abdel-Wahab et al. 2010), and formed a sister clade to Sammeyersia grandispora. The type species is M. tropicale, initially described as Cirrenalia tropicalis, but it was transferred to Matsusporium because it was distantly placed from the type species Cirrenalia macrocephala that is affiliated with Halosphaeriaceae. The genus Matsusporium is different from other helicoids genera by having 12-septate conidia that usually have a long stalk (Abdel-Wahab et al. 2010).

Type species: Matsusporium tropicale (Kohlm.) E.B.G. Jones & K.L. Pang.

Other accepted species: Species Fungorum – search Matsusporium.


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Figure 1 – Matsusporium tropicale. a–g Variously shaped mature conidia. Scale bars: a–g = 10 μm.

 

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Figure 2 – Matsusporium tropicale (NY, Kohlmeyer 1888a holotype and NY, Kohlmeyer 1892 paratype). a Herbarium material. b Appearance of conidia and conidiophores on wood surface. c–e Conidiophores. f–h Helicoid conidia. Scale bars: c = 50 μm, d–e = 20 μm, f–h = 10 μm.

 

References

Abdel-Wahab MA, Pang KL, Nagahama T, Abdel-Aziz FA et al. 2010 – Phylogenetic evaluation of anamorphic species of Cirrenalia and Cumulospora with the description of eight new genera and four new species. Mycological Progress 9, 537–558.

 

Entry by

Monika Dayarathne, Center of Excellence in Fungal Research, Mae Fah Luang University, Chiang Rai 57100, Thailand.

 

Published online 26 March 2026