Fungalpedia – Note 770, Pleurotheciaceae

 

Pleurotheciaceae. Réblová & Seifert.

Citation when using this data: Karimi O et al. 2025 (in prep.) – Fungalpedia, Ascomycota.

Index Fungorum, Facesoffungi, MycoBank, GenBank.

Classification: Pleurotheciales, Hypocreomycetidae, Sordariomycetes, Pezizomycotina, Ascomycota, Fungi

Réblová et al. (2016) introduced Pleurotheciaceae within Pleurotheciales, based on morphology and the combined phylogenetic analyses of ITS, SSU, LSU, tub2, and mcm7 sequence data, with Pleurothecium as the type genus, which was earlier established by Höhnel (1923). Currently, the family comprises 14 accepted genera (Samarakoon et al. 2024). Members of Pleurotheciaceae are mostly reported as saprobes in aquatic habitats, with some genera, such as Dematipyriforma, occasionally reported as endophytes (Réblová et al. 2016, Sun et al. 2017, Dong et al. 2021). The sexual morph is characterized by dark, papillate, perithecial ascomata without stromata, unitunicate asci, abundant paraphyses, and transversely multi-septate ascospores, which are hyaline or versicolorous with hyaline polar cells and brown middle cells. The asexual morph was reported as variable hyphomycetous forms, including acrodictys-like, helicon-like, monodictys-like, and dactylaria-like structures. It is characterized by macronematous or semi-macronematous conidiophores, which are often loosely fasciculate or aggregated in indeterminate synnemata, holoblastic conidiogenous cells, and hyaline, brown, or versicolorous conidia that are septate or non-septate (Réblová et al. 2016, Sun et al. 2017, Dong et al. 2021, Tian et al. 2024, Samarakoon et al. 2024). 

Type genus: Pleurothecium Höhn., Centbl. Bakt. ParasitKde, Abt. II 60: 26 (1923) [1924]

 

References

Réblová M, Seifert KA, Fournier J, Štěpánek V. 2016 – Newly recognised lineages of perithecial ascomycetes: the new orders Conioscyphales and Pleurotheciales. Persoonia 37, 57–81.

Höhnel F von. 1923 – Studien über Hyphomyzeten. Zentralblatt für Bakteriologie und Parasitenkunde, Abteilung 2, 60, 1–26.

Samarakoon BC, Wanasinghe DN, Samarakoon MC, Bundhun D, et al. 2024 – Exploring fungi: a taxonomic and phylogenetic study of leaf-inhabiting Ascomycota in Musa species from northern Thailand, with a global checklist. Mycosphere 15, 1901–2174.

Sun LY, Li HY, Sun X, Guo LD. 2017 – Dematipyriforma aquilaria gen. et sp. nov., a new hyphomycetous taxon from Aquilaria crassna. Cryptogamie, Mycologie 38, 341–351.

Dong W, Hyde KD, Jeewon R, Doilom M, et al. 2021 – Towards a natural classification of Annulatascaceae-like taxa II: introducing five new genera and eighteen new species from freshwater. Mycosphere 12, 1–88.

Tian XG, Bao DF, Karunarathna SC, Jayawardena RS et al. 2024 – Taxonomy and phylogeny of ascomycetes associated with selected economically important monocotyledons in China and Thailand. Mycosphere 15, 1–274.

 

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

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