Loratospora
Loratospora Kohlm. & Volkm.-Kohlm., Syst. Ascom. 12(1-2): 10 (1993).
Index Fungorum number: IF 26473; Facesoffungi number: FoF 00247, 3 morphological species (Species Fungorum 2022), 3 species with molecular data.
Saprobic on Juncus roemerianus. Sexual morph: Ascomata scattered to clustered, solitary, immersed to erumpent through host surface, visible as small black spots on host surface, uni to biloculate, globose to subglobose, glabrous, brown to dark brown, ostiole central, with minute papilla, with brown periphyses. Peridium thin-walled, of unequal thickness, thickened at the apex, composed of several layers of brown to dark brown, pseudoparenchymatous cells, arranged in textura angularis to textura globulosa. Hamathecium absent, visible as mucilaginous matrix between asci. Asci 8-spored, bitunicate, fissitunicate, ovoid to ampulliform, thick-walled at the apex, sessile to subsessile, apically rounded with indistinct ocular chamber, sparse in mucilaginous matrix. Ascospores overlapping or parallel, 4–5-seriate, phragmosporous, cylindrical, or narrowly elongate fusiform with rounded ends, initially hyaline to subhyaline, pale yellowish at maturity, 3-septate, slightly curved, not constricted at the septa, rough-walled, surrounded by a thin, distinct sheath. Asexual morph: Unknown (adapted from Phookamsak et al. 2014).
Type species: Loratospora aestuarii Kohlm. & Volkm.-Kohlm.
Notes: Loratospora can also be distinguished from Wettsteinina in that the latter lack ostiolar periphyses, has a thick-walled peridium of equal width and ellipsoidal to broadly fusiform ascospores while the former has a central ostiole with brown periphyses, a thin-walled peridium with unequal thickness, and phragmosporous, cylindrical, or narrowly elongate fusiform ascospores with rounded ends. Barr (1996) treated Loratospora as a distinct genus in Planistromellaceae based on the periphysate ostiole. Jones et al. (2009) and Monkai et al. (2013) re-circumscribed Loratospora. Schoch et al. (2009), Zhang et al. (2012) and Hyde et al. (2013) placed Loratospora in Phaeosphaeriaceae based on multigene phylogenetic analyses. Loratospora is phylogenetically closely related to Chaetosphaeronema, Dematiopleospora, Entodesmium, Nodulosphaeria and Ophiobolus but has a differentiated centrum type. Loratospora also lacks pseudoparaphyses and the hamathecium is visible as mucilaginous matrix between asci while most genera in Phaeosphaeriaceae have pseudoparaphyses. Phookamsak et al. (2014) reported that the centrum-type might not be significant in differentiating genera at the family level. Loratospora is a distinct genus in Phaeosphaeriaceae. Molecular markers available for Loratospora are ITS, LSU, SSU, RPB2 and TEF-1.
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