Fungalpedia – Note 2785, Neurospora
Neurospora. Shear & B.O. Dodge.
Citation when using this data: Huang SK et al. 2021 – Fungalpedia.
Index Fungorum, Facesoffungi, MycoBank, GenBank, Fig 1
Classification: Sordariaceae, Sordariales, Sordariomycetidae, Sordariomycetes, Pezizomycotina, Ascomycota, Fungi
Coprophilous or isolated from soil, burned or unburned vegetation in terrestrial habitats, heterothallic or pseudohomothallic. Sexual morph: Ascomata perithecial or cleistothecial, gregarious or scattered, solitary, semi-immersed to superficial, globose, subglobose to ovoid, brown to black, ostiole with hyaline periphyses. Peridium comprising brown to hyaline cells of textura angularis, textura globulosa, textura prismatica, textura intrincata or textura epidermoidea, carbonaceous to membranaceous. Paraphyses numerous, filiform or cylindrical or lacking. Asci 4- or 8-spored, unitunicate, cylindrical to clavate, pedicellate, with J- apical ring. Ascospores hyaline, olivaceous brown, grey or black, oval to ellipsoidal, aseptate, with longitudinal ribs or irregular to circular, deep or shallow pits on surface and germ pore(s) at one/each end, with or without guttules. Asexual morph: Hyphomycetous. Mycelium hyaline to light brown, septate. Conidiophores reduced to conidiogenous cells. Conidiogenous cells phialidic, oval to clavate, hyaline, smooth-walled. Conidia ellipsoidal to oval, hyaline, yellow, orange or dark brown, smooth-walled (adapted from Shear and Dodge 1927; Tai 1935; Perkins et al. 1976; Perkins and Turner 1988; Turner et al. 2001).
Notes: Neurospora is characterized by dark brown ascospores with ornamented surface and its asexual morph is usually found in nature and/or culture and is chrysonilia-like (Shear and Dodge 1927; von Arx 1981a, b; Jacobson et al. 2004). This genus is widespread and usually found in soil and burned or unburned vegetation in terrestrial habitats (Perkins et al. 1976; Perkins and Raju 1986; Perkins and Turner 1988; Turner et al. 2001; García et al. 2004). Three different mating strategies have been shown in Neurospora: homothallism, pseudohomothallism and heterothallism (Shear and Dodge 1927; Tai 1935; Mahoney et al. 1969; Krug and Khan 1991; Krug et al. 1994). Initially, Gelasinospora was distinct from Neurospora as the latter has longitudinal orientated structures on the ascospores, while the former has foveolate ascospores (Dowding 1933). Phylogenetic analysis demonstrated that Gelasinospora and Anixiella species scattered in Neurospora clades (García et al. 2004). Hence, Gelasinospora and Anixiella were synonymized under Neurospora (García et al. 2004; Kirk et al. 2008; Index Fungorum 2020). Pseudoneurospora was independent from Neurospora because it has an irregular pattern on the ascospores surface (García et al. 2004). Species of Neurospora were traditionally distinguished based on ascospore wall ornamentation (Dowding 1933; García et al. 2004; Cai et al. 2006b). Subsequently, García et al. (2004) and Cai et al. (2006b) showed that the traditional classification of Neurospora results in species being a polyphyletic in the Sordariales in phylogenetic analysis. García et al. (2004) considered the ornamentation of the epispore and the mating strategy are the most important characters to consistent the phylogenetic relatedness in Neurospora (Whitehouse 1949; Taylor and Natvig 1989; Grognet and Silar 2015). In this study, we were unable to find characteristics consistent with polyphyletic Neurospora in phylogenetic analysis, either ascospore morphology or mating strategies. Therefore, we propose to delimit Neurospora as species nested in Sordariaceae in phylogenetic analysis and has aseptate ascospores with various ribs and/or pitted on surface. In this study, Neurospora is divided in four clades based on multi-gene analysis. We have sorted out their main characteristics based on mating type, form of ascomata, ascospore appearance and types of epispore.
Type species: Neurospora sitophila Shear & B.O. Dodge, J. Agric. Res., Washington 34: 1026 (1927).
Other accepted species: Species Fungorum – search Neurospora.
Figure 1 – Neurospora sitophila: a (redrawn from Shear and Dodge 1927); b–j (BPI-630404, from ex-type). a Conidiogenous cells with conidia. b Culture. c Ascomata. d Vertical section of ascoma. e Peridium. f, g Asci (evanescent). h–j Ascospores; Pseudoneurospora amorphoporcata: k (redrawn from Udagawa 1980). k Ascospores. Scale bars: a. h–k = 20 µm, c = 1 mm, d. e = 100 µm, f. g = 50 µm.
References
Index Fungorum 2020 – http://www.indexfungorum.org/Names/Names.asp.
Shear CL, Dodge BO 1927 – Life histories and heterothallism of the red bread-mold fungi of the Monilia sitophila group. J Agric Res 34(11):1019–1041.
Tai FL 1935 – Two new species of Neurospora. Mycologia 27:328–330.
von Arx JA 1981a – The genera of fungi sporulating in pure culture, 3rd edn. Cramer, Vaduz, p 424.
von Arx JA 1981b – On Monilia sitophila and some families of ascomycetes. Sydowia 34:13–29.
Whitehouse HLK 1949 – Heterothallism and sex in the fungi. Biol Rev 24(4):411–447.
Entry by
Shi-Ke Huang, State Key Laboratory Breeding Base of Green Pesticide and Agricultural Bioengineering, Key Laboratory of Green Pesticide and Agricultural Bioengineering, Ministry of Education, Guizhou University, Guiyang 550025, China, The Engineering Research Center of Southwest Bio-Pharmaceutical Resources, Ministry of Education, Guizhou University, Guiyang 550025, Guizhou Province, 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, The Mushroom Research Centre, Guizhou University, Guiyang 550025, China
Published online 18 June 2026