Pleosporales » Pleosporales, genus incertae sedis

Megatomentella

Megatomentella D.A.C. Almeida, Gusmão & A.N. Mill., in Crous et al., Persoonia 39: 315 (2017).

Index Fungorum number: IF 822811; Facesoffungi number: FoF 06671, 5 morphological species (Species Fungorum 2022), 2 species with molecular data.

Saprobic on host. Sexual morph: Ascomata superficial, globose, tomentose, subiculum present, ostiolate. Beak ridge-like, laterally compressed, opening by an elongate, slit-like ostiole. Pseudoparaphyses trabeculate, with gelatinous coating. Asci clavate, long-stipitate, thin-walled, bitunicate, fissitunicate, apex rounded, octosporous. Ascospores biseriate, fusiform, curved, septate, hyaline, without sheath, guttulate. Asexual morph: Unknown (Adapted from Crous et al. 2017).

 

Type species: Megatomentella cristata D.A.C. Almeida, Gusmão & A.N. Mill.

 

Notes: Megatomentella was introduced by Crous et al. (2017) with M. cristata as type species. Megatomentella is characterized by superficial, globose, tomentose ascomata, trabeculate pseudoparaphyses, clavate, long-stipitate asci and fusiform, curved, septate, hyaline ascospores lacking a sheath.   Megatomentella resembles Ostropella and Xenolophium in having superficial, globose ascomata with a slit-like ostiole and long-stipitate asci with eight, fusiform ascospores.  Megatomentella differs from Ostropella in having a distinct laterally compressed beak while the latter genus has a papilla. Megatomentella also differs from Lophiostoma in having an ascomata opening by a slit-like ostiole but differs in having a superficial tomentose, ascomata and long-stipitate asci while Lophiostoma has an immersed to erumpent ascomata lacking tomentum and short-stipitate asci. In the phylogenetic analysis of Crous et al. (2017), Megatomentella formed a distinct lineage within Pleosporales. Megatomentella is currently placed in Pleosporales, genera incertae sedis as its familial rank is uncertain. More taxa with DNA sequence data as well as data from more gene regions are needed to confirm the taxonomic placement of the genus. Only LSU sequence data is available for Megatomentella in Genbank.

 

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