Fungalpedia – Note 3324, Moniliellomycetes
Moniliellomycetes Q.M. Wang, F.Y. Bai & Boekhout [as ‘Monilielliomycetes’], in Wang, Theelen, Groenewald, Bai & Boekhout, Persoonia 33: 46 (2014).
Citation when using this data: Wijayawardene NN et al. 2024 – Fungalpedia.
Index Fungorum, Faceoffungi, MycoBank, GenBank, Fig 1.
Classification: Ustilaginomycotina, Basidiomycota, Dikarya, Fungi.
Asexual morph: Chlamydospore formation of Moniliella occurred when the yeast was transferred from nutrient-rich to poor media, or in nitrogen-depleted media (de Hoog et al. 2011; Thanh et al. 2013). Pseudohyphae and chlamydospores are sometime present, cell walls are multi-lamellar. Hyphal septa typically possess dolipores with an arch of endoplasmic reticulum, but ‘micropore’-like structures may also be present (de Hoog et al. 2011). Sugars are fermented by most species. Nitrate is assimilated. Urease and diazonium blue B (DBB) reactions are positive. Coenzyme Q-9 is present. Xylose and fucose are absent from whole-cell hydrolysates (Wang et al. 2014). Sexual morph: Unknown. Colonies are restricted, smooth, velvety or cerebriform, cream then pale olivaceous or black-brown, yeast-like growth, budding cells are ellipsoidal and form terminally on true hyphae that disarticulate with arthroconidia (Wang et al. 2014).
Life modes and distribution: The members of Moniliellomycetes are distributed in a broad range of ecosystems in North and South America, Asia, and Europe in different life modes. Yeasts in Moniliellomycetes have been isolated from man-made products such as sweet fruit sauce, sweet pickles, acetic acid-containing products, honey, jam, leaf-cutting bees, honey bees, brood cells of the honey bees, pollen in honeycomb, buffalo milk, flowers (e.g. Ipomoea pes-caprae and Calotropis gigantea), fermented food, rotting wood, meat processing environments, and air (Rosa et al. 2009; de Hoog et al. 2011; Thanh et al. 2012, 2013, 2019; Lei et al. 2022; Pipiková et al. 2023), or pathogenetic on humans and cats (McKenzie 1984; Guarro et al. 1999). Species may be osmophilic and lipophilic, and are used to produce erythritol, a low-calorie sweetener (de Hoog et al. 2011).
Notes: The monotypic class Moniliellomycetes belongs to the subphylum Ustilaginomycotina, and has only one order (Moniliellales) and one family (Moniliellaceae), with Moniliella as the type genus (Wang et al. 2014). The phylogeny of Moniliella, was not well understood for a long time (de Hoog et al. 2011). The genus was initially thought to be closely related to Tremellomycetes in Agaricomycotina (de Hoog 1979; Guarro et al. 1999). Moniliella includes black, yeast-like fungi in the Basidiomycota, but morphologically similar black, yeast-like fungi also occur in Ascomycota (Yurlova et al. 2008). Despite their relative uniformity in morphological appearance and physiological properties, species of Moniliella exhibit a high degree of genetic divergence (Rosa et al. 2009).
Type order: Moniliellales Q.M. Wang, F.Y. Bai & Boekhout, in Wang, Theelen, Groenewald, Bai & Boekhout, Persoonia 33: 46 (2014).
Type family: Moniliellaceae Q.M. Wang, F.Y. Bai & Boekhout, in Wang, Theelen, Groenewald, Bai & Boekhout, Persoonia 33: 46 (2014).
Type genus: Moniliella Stolk & Dakin, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 32: 399 (1966).
Type species: Moniliella acetoabutans Stolk & Dakin [as ‘acetoabutens’], Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 32: 400 (1966).
Other accepted species: Species Fungorum – search Moniliellomycetes.
Figure 1 – Morphology of Moniliella pyrgileucina (redrawn from Thanh et al. 2018).
References
de Hoog GS. 1979 – The taxonomic position of Moniliella, Trichosporonoides and Hyalodendron – an essay. Stud Mycol 19:81–90.
Entry by
Nalin N. Wijayawardene, Center for Yunnan Plateau Biological Resources Protection and Utilization, College of Biological Resource and Food Engineering, Qujing Normal University, Qujing, Yunnan 655011, P.R. China, Tropical Microbiology Research Foundation, 96/N/10, Meemanagoda Road, 10230 Pannipitiya, Sri Lanka, Department of Bioprocess Technology, Faculty of Technology, Rajarata University, Sri Lanka
Published online 2 October 2026