Mycosphaerellales » Mycosphaerellaceae

Bryopelta

Bryopelta Döbbeler & Poelt, in Döbbeler, Mitt. bot. StSamml., Münch. 14: 126 (1978).

Index Fungorum number: IF 665; Facesoffungi number: FoF 08585, 1 morphological species (Species Fungorum 2022), no molecular data available.

Mycelium composed of hyaline hyphae, septate, branched within the host cells. Sexual morph: Ascomata solitary, glabrous, semi-immersed or immersed, globose to subglobose, black, thick-walled, ostiole central, papillate, filled with hyaline to dark brown periphyses. Peridium composed of thick-walled hyaline to dark brown cells of textura angularis to textura porrecta. Hamathecium composed of dense, filamentous, hyaline, septate, unbranched, anastomosing pseudoparaphyses. Asci 8-spored, bitunicate, fissitunicate, cylindrical to fusiform, obtuse at the tip, slightly widened at base or sometimes with short pedicel, slightly curved. Ascospores multiseriate, crowded, ellipsoidal, generally 1(–3)-septate, asymmetrical, constricted at septa, with a smooth or rough epispore. Asexual morph: Mycelium producing black synnemata, with conidiophores directly arising from the basal layers, brown. Conidia hyaline, narrow ellipsoid (Adapted from Döbbeler 1978; Li et al. 2014; Videira et al. 2017).

 Type species: Bryopelta variabilis Döbbeler & Poelt

Notes: Bryopelta is characterised by solitary, glabrous, globose to subglobose ascomata, cylindrical to fusiform asci and ellipsoidal, generally uniseptate, asymmetrical ascospores. Döbbeler (1978) referred Bryopelta to Pleosporaceae. Döbbeler and Poelt (1978) mentioned the asexual morph of B. variabilis as a hyphomycete. Lumbsch and Huhndorf (2010) treated Bryopelta in Dothideomycetes genera incertae sedis. Bryopelta resembles members of Mycosphaerellaceae in ascus and ascospores characters but differs in having a thicker peridium compared to other genera in the family (Li et al. 2014). Li et al. (2014) re-examined the holotype specimen of B. variabilis (GZU 000302175) and reported the presence of interthecial filaments between the asci which is a typical of Mycosphaerellaceae. Bryopelta resembles Sphaerellothecium in having solitary, scattered, papillate ascomata, bitunicate, cylindrical to fusiform asci, uniseptate, hyaline, asymmetrical, fusiform ascospores and a hamathecium comprising filamentous pseudoparaphyses between asci, but differs in having a red-brown peridium with thick-walled cells arranged in a textura angularis to textura porrecta while Sphaerellothecium has peridium with brown, thin-walled cells arranged as textura angularis (Hyde et al. 2013). Li et al. (2014) referred Bryopelta to Mycosphaerellaceae, incertae sedis based on the bryophilous lifestyle and combination of above morphological characters. Molecular data is lacking for Bryopelta. The placement of Bryopelta in Mycosphaerellaceae is doubtful. Fresh collections with DNA sequence data are needed to confirm the taxonomic placement of the genus.

 

 

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