Dothidea
Dothidea Fr., Observ. mycol. (Havniae) 2: 347 (1818).
Index Fungorum number: IF 1693; Facesoffungi number: FoF 00066, 33 morphological species (Species Fungorum 2022), 8 species with molecular data.
Saprobic on dead wood, stems and twigs. Sexual morph: Ascostromata dark brown to black, erumpent through the outer layer of the host tissue, to superficial, solitary or scattered, pulvinate, globose to subglobose, coriaceous, multiloculate, with 3–15 locules, cells of ascostromata composed of several layers of dark brown cells of textura angularis. Locules globose to subglobose, broadly or narrowly conical, thick-walled, with or without ostioles. Peridium of locules comprising 1–2 layers of thick-walled, lightly pigmented, dark brown to black cells of textura angularis. Hamathecium lacking pseudoparaphyses. Asci 8-spored, bitunicate, fissitunicate, clavate to sub-cylindrical, with a short broad pedicel, thickened and rounded at apex, with a clear ocular chamber. Ascospores uniseriate to biseriate, partially overlapping, hyaline, sometimes brown, uniseptate, constricted at the septum, ellipsoidal or oblong to obovoid with broadly rounded ends, smooth-walled, thick-walled, with or without a sheath. Asexual morph: See notes (adapted from Thambugala et al. 2014).
Type species: Dothidea sambuci (Pers.) Fr.
Notes: Dothidea is characterised by dark brown to black, erumpent ascostromata, globose to subglobose, broadly or narrowly conical locules, bitunicate, fissitunicate, clavate to sub-cylindrical asci and partially overlapping, hyaline, brown,uniseptate ascospores. Fuckel (1869) allocated Dothidea as the type genus of Dothideaceae with D. gibberulosa (Ach.) Fr. as the type species. Theissen and Sydow (1915) introduced Systremma to accommodate Dothidea with D. sambuci as type species, and transferred D. ribesia and D. berberidis to Dothidella (subfamily Dothideae). Theissen and Sydow (1915) chose the oldest name Sphaeria natans Tode as the basionym and used the later Dothidea sambuci as a synonym. Clements and Shear (1931) changed the type genus and used D. sambuci as the type species based on the rules from Cambridge revision of the International Code. Shoemaker et al. (2003) formally conserved the type for Dothidea as Sphaeria sambuci Pers. (Dothidea sambuci (Pers.) Fr.). Shoemaker and Hambleton (2005) established an epitype for D. sambuci (DAOM 231303) collected on dead, corticate twigs of Sambucus nigra in Austria. In the phylogenetic analysis of Thambugala et al. (2014), the epitype Dothidea sambuci clustered in Dothideaceae with strong statistical support and the authors referred to this clade as Dothidea s. str.. Some species such as D. berberidis, D. hippophaës and D. muelleri might warrant new genus status as they are not Dothidea species. Dothidea is a distinct and type genus of Dothideaceae but requires revision as several species lack sequence data. Molecular markers available for Dothidea include ITS, LSU, SSU, TEF-1 and RPB2.
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