Preussia
Preussia Fuckel, Hedwigia 6: 175 (1867).
Index Fungorum number: IF 4363; Facesoffungi number: FoF 06568, 53 morphological species (Species Fungorum, 2022), 30 species with molecular data.
Habitat terrestrial, saprobic (on decaying fibers or coprophilous). Sexual morph: Ascomata small- to medium-sized, cleistothecial or perithecial, solitary or scattered on substrate surface, globose, membraneous, black. Peridium thin, composed of thick-walled, poly-angular cells from the surface view. Pseudoparaphyses not observed. Asci (4-) 8-spored, bitunicate, clavate to broadly clavate, with a long and thin and furcate pedicel. Ascospores 3–6 seriate to uniseriate near the base, cylindrical with rounded ends, brown, septate, easily breaking into partspores, with germ slits in each cell. Asexual morph: Phoma (von Arx, 1973; Cain, 1961; Malloch & Cain, 1972).
Type species: Preussia funiculata (Preuss) Fuckel
Notes: Preussia is characterised by small- to medium-sized, cleistothecial or perithecial ascomata, clavate to broadly clavate asci and cylindrical, brown, septate ascospores with rounded ends and germ slits in each cell. Preussia morphologically resembles Sporormia and Sporormiella in having ascospores with conspicuous germ slits, surrounded by a hyaline gelatinous sheath. Preussia differs from Sporormia in that the latter has perithecioid ascomata and cylindrical asci while Preussia has cleistothecial ascomata. Preussia differs from Sporormiella in that it has cleistothecioid ascomata while Sporormiella has dark brown, glabrous or hairy uniloculate pseudothecia. These differences in morphological characters have been reported to have little phylogenetic significance (Arx 1973, Zhang et al. 2009a). Members of Sporormiella and Preussia have been differentiated based on ecological concept, and host preference with Sporormiella having a coprophilous habitat while Preussia has a saprobic lifestyle occurring in plant debris, wood or soil (Arx & van der Aa 1987). Cain (1961) accepted 12 species of Preussia with some of them having a coprophilous lifestyle. Guarro et al. (1997b) rejected this concept as P. intermedia was found from soil and dung. In the phylogenetic analysis of Kruys and Wedin (2009) based on ITS, LSU, BTUB and mtSSU sequence data, Preussia clustered together with Sporormiella and Spororminula. Kruys and Wedin (2009) treated Sporormiella and Spororminula as synonyms of Preussia. Preussia sensu lato is morphologically and phylogenetically a distinct genus in Sporormiaceae. Molecular markers available for Preussia are ITS, LSU, BTUB and TEF-1.
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