Fenestella
Fenestella Tul. & C. Tul., Select. fung. carpol. (Paris) 2: 207 (1863).
Index Fungorum number: IF 1983; Facesoffungi number: FoF 00576, 28 morphological species (Species Fungorum 2022), 8 species with molecular data.
Saprotrophic, biotrophic or hemibiotrophic on angiosperms. Sexual morph: Ascostromata solitary to gregarious, immersed to erumpent through host periderm, visible on the host surface as raised, circular areas with a central sunken area, with blackened ostiolar dots. Locules clustered or gregarious, multiloculate, arranged in a valsoid configuration, ovoid to obpyriform, or ampulliform, glabrous, covered by vegetative hyphae between locules and host tissue, ostioles individual, central. Peridium thick-walled, of unequal thickness, slightly thicker at the apex, composed of hyaline to brown, pseudoparenchymatous cells, arranged in a textura angularis. Hamathecium composed of numerous, narrow, cellular pseudoparaphyses, anastomosing between asci, embedded in gelatinous matrix. Asci 8-spored, bitunicate, fissitunicate, cylindrical to cylindric-clavate, with long pedicel, apically rounded, with an indistinct ocular chamber. Ascospores overlapping uni-seriate, muriform, ellipsoidal to broadly fusiform, pale yellowish to dark brown, or reddish brown, paler at both extreme ends, constricted at the median septa, wall rough. Asexual morph: reported as Pleurostromella Petr. (Brefeld 1891, Huhndorf & Glawe 1990, Hyde et al. 2013).
Type species: Fenestella princeps Tul. & C. Tul.
Notes: Fenestella is characterised by solitary to gregarious ascostromata, with ovoid to obpyriform locules, cylindrical to cylindric-clavate asci with long pedicel, and muriform, ellipsoidal to broadly fusiform ascospores that are pale yellowish to dark brown, or reddish brown, paler at both ends. The asexual morph is reported as Pleurostromella (Phookamsak & Hyde 2015). Tulasne and Tulasne (1863) included three species in Fenestella, F. media, F. minor and F. princeps without illustrating the morphological detail. Tulasne and Tulasne (1863) identified Fenestella species based on the length to width ratios of ascospores and described F. princeps as characterised by large ascospores with acute ends but Fuckel (1871) identified this specimen as F. macrospora. Barr (1987) reported that the asexual morph of Fenestella was not well-studied. Kendrick and DiCosmo (1979) reported that the asexual morph of Fenestella resembles those of Phoma in forming micro-conidial conidiomata (Hyde et al. 2013). Brefeld (1891) defined the asexual morph characters of Fenestella from the sexual morph. Arx and Müller (1975) placed Fenestella in Pleosporaceae. Barr (1979) accommodated Fenestella in a new family Fenestellaceae. Huhndorf and Glawe (1990) agreed with Brefeld’s observations and described the asexual morph as Pleurostromella. Kirk et al. (2008) and Wijayawardene et al. (2012) also treated Pleurostromella as the asexual morph of Fenestella. The type specimen of F. princeps is lost. Phookamsak and Hyde (2015) re-examined an authentic specimen of F. princeps (PC0084496) under the name Valsa macrospora and accepted Fenestella in Fenestellaceae. Wanasinghe et al. (2017) added two new species F. ostryae (Parafenestella ostryae) and F. mackenziei (Parafenestella faberi) in Fenestella, and transferred the genus to Cucurbitariaceae while synonymizing Fenestellaceae under Cucurbitariaceae based on phylogenetic evidence incorporating ITS, LSU and SSU rDNA sequence data. Jaklitsch and Voglmayr (2020) provided the most updated details on Fenestella and recognized eight new species in Fenestella sensu stricto. They also combined Cucurbitaria crataegi in Fenestella and reported that the asexual morphs of fenestelloid fungi are phoma-like similar to other members of Cucurbitariaceae. Fenestella is morphologically and phylogenetically a distinct genus in Fenestellaceae but the taxonomy of Fenestella is complex and species can be delineated using the phylogenetic species concept incorporating protein-coding genes, such as RPB2, TEF1 and BTUB2. Molecular markers available for Fenestella are ITS, LSU, SSU, BTUB, RPB2 and TEF-1.
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