Fungalpedia – Note 2211, Paralulworthia
Paralulworthia A. Poli, E. Bovio, L. Ranieri, G.C. Varese & V. Prigione
Citation when using this data: Dayarathne MC et al. 2025 – Fungalpedia, Ascomycota.
Index Fungorum, Facesoffungi, MycoBank, GenBank, Fig 1
Classification: Incertae sedis, Lulworthiales, Lulworthiomycetidae, Sordariomycetes, Pezizomycotina, Ascomycota, Fungi
Saprobic on wood and Posidonia oceanica rhizomes. Sexual morph: Ascomata globose–subglobose to ellipsoidal, superficial, partly immersed, brown, blackish, coriaceous. Peridium dark brown, 2-layered. Necks are cylindrical. No paraphyses or catenophyses. Asci 8-spored, cylindrical with pointed ends, unitunicate, thin-walled and early deliquescing, without an apical apparatus. Ascospores hyaline, filiform, curved, coiled, tapering towards both ends, no septa, with oil droplets and with apical, cone-shaped end chambers. Asexual morph: Chlamydospores numerous, solitary and multicellular, from 1–3 septate, globose to subglobose, light to dark brown.
Notes: Poli et al. (2020) introduced Paralulworthia from material collected on the rhizomes of the sea grass Posidonia oceanica, in the Mediterranean Sea, Elba Island, Tuscany, Italy. Paralulworthia gigaspora differs from other genera in the Lulworthiales by its 1–3 septate brown ascospores. A second sexual morph (Paralulworthia posidoniae) was also isolated from P. oceanica and has ascospores similar to P. gigaspora. The ascomata and spore morphology of P. gigaspora and P. posidoniae are atypical for Lulworthiales species and the conspecificity of the sporulating and non-sporulating stage was not confirmed using a sequencing approach. Poli et al. (2020) obtained the sporulating material by growing cultures on plates for four weeks, then adding the wood and incubating for a further four weeks. Finally, the wood was placed in seawater and after a further 4 weeks ascomata were formed (E.B.G. Jones communication with the authors of Poli et al. 2020). This workflow can be prone to contamination. There are no voucher specimens of the teleomorph stages available for study, DNA extraction or sequence analysis. Thus, we cannot exclude the possibility of the sporulating forms representing contaminants and other species than were originally isolated and cultured in their vegetative form on plates.
Type species: Paralulworthia gigaspora A. Poli, E. Bovio, L. Ranieri, G.C. Varese & V. Prigione, Frontiers in Microbiology 11(no. 933): 9 (2020).
Other accepted species: Species Fungorum – search Paralulworthia.
Figure 1 – Paralulworthia lignicola (TROM-F26842, holotype). a A pure culture plate with the fungus on low-nutrition malt extract agar prepared with artificial seawater, cultured for 28 days at 18 °C, from above. b A pure culture plate with the fungus on low-nutrition cornmeal agar prepared with artificial seawater, cultured for 28 days at 18°C. c The dried holotype specimen of the fungus with ascomata and mycelium on a wooden cube and surrounding culture medium. d An ascoma of the fungus. e A micrograph showing inner cell wall structure with melanized cells. f Chlamydospores and hyphae of the outer cell wall of an ascoma. g Deliquescing asci and spores, in differential interference contrast (DIC) microscope. h A single ascospore, in DIC. Scale bars: c = 1000 µm, d = 200 µm, e–g = 10 µm, h = 20 µm.
References
Entry by
Monika Dayarathne, Center of Excellence in Fungal Research, Mae Fah Luang University, Chiang Rai 57100, Thailand.
Published online 26 March 2026