Fungalpedia – Note 749, Narathiwatomyces
Narathiwatomyces O. Karimi, R. Asghari & K.D. Hyde
Citation when using this data: Karimi O et al. 2025 (in prep.) – Fungalpedia, Ascomycota.
Index Fungorum, Facesoffungi, MycoBank, GenBank, Fig. 1
Classification: Natipusillaceae, Natipusillales, Incertae sedis, Dothideomycetes, Pezizomycotina, Ascomycota, Fungi
Etymology – The genus name refers to Narathiwat, the region where the fungus was collected.
Holotype – MFLU 24-0489
Saprobic on the submerged rachis of Eleiodoxa conferta. Asexual morph: Not observed. Sexual morph: Ascomata superficial, hemispherical, effused-pulvinate, umbonate, black, papillate. Peridium brown, slightly translucent, arranged in cells of textura angularis. Pseudoparaphyses hyaline, subcylindrical to irregular, septate. Asci 8-spored, clavate, rounded at the apex, with or without an apical chamber, with a short pedicellate or absent. Ascospores irregularly overlappingly arranged, fusiform, 1-septate, sometimes becoming 3-septate at maturity, brown to olivaceous brown, guttulate, straight or curved.
Notes – Narathiwatomyces has a single species, Nar. confertae (MFLUCC 24-0573), formed a subclade to Natipusilla species (Nat. decorospora, Nat. limonensis, Nat. naponensis) with 80% ML and 1.00 PP statistical support in the combined phylogenetic analyses of the LSU and SSU sequence data (Fig. 2). In the phylogenetic tree, Nat. bellaspora isolates clustered separately from other Natipusilla species. This may be due to the insufficient sequence data, as only LSU and SSU are available for Natipusilla species. However, morphologically, our isolate differs significantly from the Natipusilla species. The newly introduced genus, Narathiwatomyces differs from Natipusilla species by having hemispherical, effused-pulvinate, umbonate, black, papillate ascomata, septate, hyaline pseudoparaphyses and clavate, short pedicellate asci, whereas the latter has globose to subglobose, hyaline to light brown ascomata, few or absent pseudoparaphyses and globose to obclavate asci (Ferrer et al. 2011). Based on BLAST search results of LSU and SSU sequences, Nar. confertae (MFLUCC 24-0573) demonstrates 97.70% and 91.83% similarities to Nat. bellaspora (ILL PE91 1a), respectively, with 100% query cover. Based on the pairwise comparison of LSU and SSU nucleotides, Nar. confertae (MFLUCC 24-0573) differs from Nat. bellaspora (ILL PE91 1a) by 8.3% (74/889 bp) for LSU and 2.8% (30/1040 bp) for SSU without including gaps. However, comparisons for the ITS and rpb2 sequences cannot be performed due to the lack of sequences for Natipusilla species. Hence, based on these morphological and phylogenetic differences, we establish a new genus to accommodate Nar. confertae.
Type species: Narathiwatomyces confertae O. Karimi, R. Asghari & K.D. Hyde, Mycosphere 16(1): 2479 (2025).
Other accepted species: Species Fungorum – search Narathiwatomyces.
Figure 1 – Narathiwatomyces confertae (MFLU 24-0489, holotype). a Host. b, c Appearance of ascomata on the host substrate. d–f A section of the ascoma. g Pseudoparaphyses. h–j Asci. k, l Ascospores. m A germinated ascospore. n, o Colonies on the PDA. Scale bars: b = 500 μm, c–e = 100 μm, f = 50 μm, g = 6 μm, h, i = 30 μm, j–m = 15 μm.
References
Entry by
Omid Karimi, State Key Laboratory of Discovery and Utilization of Functional Components in Traditional Chinese Medicine & School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Guizhou Medical University, Guian New District, Guizhou 550004, 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
Published online 28 July 2025