Pleosporales » Didymosphaeriaceae

Didymocrea

Didymocrea Kowalski, Mycologia 57(3): 405 (1965).

 Index Fungorum number: IF 1552; Facesoffungi number: FoF 08238, 2 morphological species (Species Fungorum 2022), 2 species with molecular data.

Colonies slow growing, white or dark grey, turning black on maturity. Sexual morph: Perithecia deep brown, or black, flattened spherical, semi-immersed to superficial, short-stalked without ostiole. Peridium composed of black to brown parenchymatous cell. Hamathecium consisting of filiform septate cellular pseudoparaphyses. Asci broad, clavate, thin-walled, bitunicate, cylindrical, short-stalked with no apical pore. Ascospores biseriate, two-celled with upper cell round and broad, while lower is more tapered, hyaline, granular at first, turnin yellowish brown on maturity (adapted from Reddy 1961). Asexual morph: Hyphomycetous. Sporodochia on substrate punctiform, pulvinate, granular, black, shining. Mycelium immersed in the substrate, composed of branched, septate, smooth, subhyaline to pale brown, hyphae. Conidiophores micronematous or semi-macronematous, mononematous, fasciculate, simple or sometimes branched. Conidiogenous cells integrated, holoblastic, terminal, determinate. Conidia acrogenous, solitary, reddish brown to brown, broadly ellipsoidal to obovoid in surface view, fusiform to obclavate in lateral view, flattened, muriform, 3–4 rows of transverse septa, constricted at the septa, dark and thickly banded at the septa, canals in the septa obscured by dark pigmentation in face view, and visible inside view, thin and smooth-walled. The number of cells per conidium varies from 9 to 11. Basal cell subhyaline to pale brown, cuneiform (adapted from Jayasiri et al. 2019).

 Type species: Didymocrea sadasivanii (T.K.R. Reddy) Kowalski

Notes: Didymocrea is characterised by flattened, spherical, black, sparse perithecia, broad, clavate, thin-walled asci, and seriate, two celled ascospores with upper cell round and broad (Kowalski 1965, Reddy 1961). The asexual morph of Didymocrea was reported by Jayasiri et al. (2019) and is characterised by punctiform, pulvinate, granular, black sporodochia, subhyaline to pale brown mycelium, micronematous or semi-macronematous, mononematous conidiophores, and acrogenous, solitary, reddish brown to brown conidia. Kowalski (1965) placed Didymocrea in Hypocreales based on the unitunicate asci. This placement was not followed by other authors who retained Didymocrea in Pleosporales and mentioned that the genus was probably a true pleosporalean fungus with functionally unitunicate asci (Luttrell 1975, Aptroot 1995, Zhang et al. 2012). Aptroot (1995) suggested the placement of Didymocrea in Zopfiaceae. Ariyawansa et al. (2014) and Tanaka et al. (2015) placed Didymocrea in Didymosphaeriaceae based on multigene phylogenetic analyses. Didymocrea is a distinct and well-defined genus in Didymosphaeriaceae. Molecular markers available for Didymocrea are ITS, LSU, SSU, RPB2 and TEF-1.

 

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