Monascostroma
Monascostroma Höhn., Annls mycol. 16(1/2): 160 (1918).
Index Fungorum number: IF 3246; Facesoffungi number: FoF 00547, 7 morphological species (Species Fungorum 2022), 2 species with molecular data.
Saprobic on dead stem and bark. Sexual morph: Ascomata solitary to aggregated, scattered, black, immersed, globose or subglobose, papillate, apex with papilla and with a pore-like, central ostiole. Peridium thick, composed of cells of textura angularis, thin-walled. Hamathecium comprising septate, hypha-like pseudoparaphyses. Asci 8-spored, bitunicate, fissitunicate, oblong to ellipsoidal, without pedicel, apically rounded with an indistinct ocular chamber. Ascospores irregular arranged in ascus or crowded, fusoid with narrowly rounded ends, uniseptate, initially hyaline, becoming pale brown at maturity, deeply constricted at the median septum, upper cell often broader than lower one, with numerous small guttules, surrounded with sheath, verruculose. Asexual morph: Unknown (adapted from Doilom et al. 2018).
Type species: Monascostroma innumerosum (Desm.) Höhn.
Notes: Monascostroma is characterised by solitary to aggregated, scattered, black, immersed, globose or subglobose ascomata, oblong to ellipsoidal asci, and verruculose ascospores that are fusoid with narrowly rounded ends, uniseptate, initially hyaline, becoming pale brown at maturity and surrounded with a sheath. Eriksson and Hawksworth (1998) and Kodsueb et al. (2006) placed Monascostroma in Pleosporaceae. In the phylogenetic analyses of Zhang et al. (2009, 2012), Schoch et al. (2009), Hyde et al. (2013) and Knapp et al. (2015), a putative strain of Monascostroma innumerosum (CBS 345.50) formed a distinct clade in Didymellaceae. Chen et al. (2017) revised Didymellaceae but did not consider Monascostroma in the family Didymellaceae. Doilom et al. (2018) examined a specimen of M. innumerosum (S-F234926) and accepted Monascostroma in Didymellaceae based on smaller ascomata, absence of periphyses, a thin-walled peridium and two-celled ascospores. Monascostroma is morphologically and phylogenetically a distinct genus in Didymellaceae. Molecular markers available for Monascostroma are ITS, LSU, SSU, RPB2, TEF-1 and mtSSU.
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