Lichenoconium
Lichenoconium Petr. & Syd., Beih. Reprium nov. Spec. Regni veg. 42(1): 432 (1927) [1926].
Index Fungorum number: IF 8772; Facesoffungi number: FoF 08047, 16 morphological species (Species Fungorum 2022), 4 species with molecular data.
Lichenicolous. Sexual morph: Unknown. Asexual morph: Conidiomata pycnidial. Pycnidia dispersed or slightly aggregated, immersed to superficial, subspherical to ellipsoid, black, with an irregular pore-like opening. Pycnidial wall pseudoparenchymatic, composed of 2–4 layers of rounded to polyhedral, flattened cells, which are darker and thick-walled in outer layers and paler in inner layers, dark brown, usually becoming more olivaceous in 10 % KOH, in some species with additional pigments and typical color reactions in KOH. Conidiophores absent. Conidiogenous cells covering the entire wall of the inner pycnidial cavity up to the pore, phialidic, often percurrently proliferating, hyaline and smooth, more rarely apically brown and verrucose, elongate ampulliform to subcylindrical. Conidia arising singly, mostly not catenate, in some species indistinctly catenate and adhering together in long chains, resulting in large masses of conidia covering the pycnidia, either irregularly or in mazaedium-like structures, subspherical, ellipsoid, obpyriform or elongate-clavate, basally indistinctly or distinctly truncate, with the basal scar variable in size, aseptate, not visibly guttulate, surface always ornamented, varying from indistinctly verruculose to distinctly verrucose or echinulate, medium to dark brown, becoming more olivaceous in 10 % KOH (adapted from Hyde et al. 2013).
Type species: Lichenoconium lichenicola (P. Karst.) Petr. & Syd.
Notes: Lichenoconium is characterised by immersed to superficial, subspherical to ellipsoid pycnidia, elongate ampulliform to subcylindrical conidiogenous cells and subspherical, ellipsoid, obpyriform or elongate-clavate conidia. No sexual morph has been reported for Lichenoconium. Hawksworth (1977) reported the conidiogenous cells of Lichenoconium as phialidic and also annellidic as they exhibited percurrent proliferations. Lawrey et al. (2011) provided nuLSU and mtSSU sequence data for four species of Lichenoconium and reported that the genus in monophyletic in Dothideomycetes. Several authors added new species (Kondratyuk & Galloway 1995, Hawksworth 1977, Cole & Hawksworth 2004). Hyde et al. (2013) erected the new family Lichenoconiaceae to accommodate Lichenoconium. Lichenoconium is morphologically and phylogenetically a distinct and type genus of Lichenoconiaceae. Molecular markers are available for the following species, L. aeruginosum (ITS, LSU), L. erodens (LSU, ITS, 25S, 12S), L. lecanorae (25S, 12S) and L. usneae (LSU, ITS). Molecular data is lacking for the type species, L. lichenicola. Lichenoconium must be epitypified.
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