Pleosporales » Testudinaceae

Montanitestudina

Montanitestudina Maharachch., Wanas. & Al-Sadi, in Maharachchikumbura et al., Fungal Diversity: 10.1007/s13225-020-00467-1, [29] (2021).

Index Fungorum number: IF 837558; Facesoffungi number: FoF 09487, 1 morphological species (Species Fungorum 2022), 1 species with molecular data.

Saprobic on dead wood of unknown plants. Sexual morph: Ascomata scattered or sometimes gregarious beneath the host periderm or on decorticated wood, coriaceous, black, globose to subglobose, ostiolate. Ostiole central, papillate, with an irregular, pore-like opening. Peridium composed of 4–5-layers with brown to dark-brown, cells of textura angularis fusing the host tissues. Hamathecium comprising septate, cellular pseudoparaphyses. Asci 8-spored, bitunicate, fissitunicate, cylindrical to cylindric-clavate, with a distinct pedicel, apically rounded, with an ocular chamber. Ascospores overlapping uniseriate, brown, ellipsoid, oblong to fusoid, 3–5-transversely septate, with 1–2-longitudinal septa, muriform, smooth-walled, with or without surrounded by a mucilaginous sheath. Asexual morph: Unknown (adapted from Maharachchikumbura et al. 2021).

Type species: Montanitestudina hydei Maharachch., Wanas. & Al-Sadi

Notes: Montanitestudina is characterised by coriaceous, black, globose to subglobose, ostiolate ascomata, fissitunicate, cylindrical to cylindric-clavate asci and brown, ellipsoid, oblong to fusoid ascospores that are 3–5-transversely septate, with 1–2-longitudinal septa surrounded by a mucilaginous sheath. Montanitestudina morphologically resembles Camarosporidiella, Cucurbitaria, and Hawksworthiana in having cylindrical asci and uniseriate, brown, muriform ascospores but is phylogenetically distinct (Wanasinghe et al. 2017, 2018, Maharachchikumbura et al. 2021). In the multigene analysis of Maharachchikumbura et al. (2021) based on LSU, SSU, ITS, TEF, RPB2 and BTUB, Montanitestudina formed a distinct lineage in Testudinaceae. Montanitestudina is morphologically and phylogenetically a distinct genus in Testudinaceae. Molecular markers available for Montanitestudina are ITS, SSU, LSU and TEF-1.

 

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