Shrungabeeja
Shrungabeeja V.G. Rao & K.A. Reddy, Indian Journal of Botany 4 (1): 109 (1981).
Index Fungorum number: IF 9919; Facesoffungi number: FoF 06671, 5 morphological species (Species Fungorum, 2022), 2 species with molecular data.
Saprobic on dead culm of Bambusa sp. in evergreen forest. Colonies effuse, brown to dark brown. Mycelium partly superficial, partly immersed in the substratum, composed of branched, septate, pale brown, smooth-walled hyphae, 2–4 μm wide. Sexual morph: Undetermined. Asexual morph: Conidiophores macronematous, mononematous, erect, straight or flexuous, unbranched, smooth, thick-walled. Conidiogenous cells monoblastic, terminal, lageniform, determinate or percurrent, pale brown to brown, smooth. Conidia solitary, dry, acrogenous, subglobose or turbinate, aseptate, hollow, pedicellate, with 4–7 filiform appendages in the anterior region which are continuous or sometimes 4–21-septate, smooth, pale brown to brown, conidia with long, appendages. Sexual morph: Unknown (Adapted from Ariyawansa et al., 2014).
Type species: Shrungabeeja vadirajensis V.G. Rao & K.A. Reddy
Notes: Shrungabeeja was introduced by Rao (1981) with S. vadirajensis as type species. Shrungabeeja is characterized by effuse, brown to dark brown colonies, macronematous, mononematous conidiophores, monoblastic, terminal, lageniform conidiogenous cells and solitary, dry, acrogenous, subglobose or turbinate, 4–21-septate conidia. Zhang et al. (2009d) accepted three species in Shrungabeeja namely S. begonia, S. melicopes and S. vadirajensis based on morphology. Hyde et al. (2011) and Wijayawardene et al. (2012) referred Shrungabeeja in Ascomycota, genera incertae sedis. Ariyawansa et al. (2014) added Shrungabeeja longiappendiculata and placed Shrungabeeja in Tetraplosphaeriaceae based on phylogenetic analyses of SSU and LSU gene. Ariyawansa et al. (2014) also reported that Shrungabeeja longiappendiculata clustered with species of Triplosphaeria, Quadricrura and Polyplosphaeria fusca in Tetraplosphaeriaceae based on a separate ITS rDNA gene analysis. Shrungabeeja differs from other genera in Tetraplosphaeriaceae in having macronematous, erect and cylindrical conidiophores, determinate or percurrent, lageniform conidiogenous cells and subglobose, turbinate, aseptate, pedicellate conidia with 3–7 filiform and horn-like appendages (Rao & Reddy, 1981; Zhang et al., 2009a; Ariyawansa et al., 2015a). Shrungabeeja resembles other genera such as Acrodictys, Iyengarina, Triposporium, Actinocladium, Domingoella, Stepphanoma and Acrogenospora in having holoblastic conidiogenesis and macronematous conidiophores but differs in conidial morphology (Rao & Reddy, 1981). Acrodictys has septate and variable-shaped conidia while Shrungabeeja has aseptate and uniformly shaped conidia. Iyengarina, Triposporium and Actinocladium have branched and septate conidia while Domingoella, Acrogenospora and Stepphanoma have dark and unicellular conidia that lack appendages while Shrungabeeja has obvious appendages. Delgado et al. (2017) reported that their placement of Shrungabeeja based on ITS-LSU sequence data is similar to the analysis of Ariyawansa et al. (2015) based on SSU-LSU data but differs from the ITS phylogeny reported by the latter. Shrungabeeja is a distinct genus in Tetraplosphaeriaceae but the taxonomic placement of this genus must be carried out using protein-coding genes to ensure its correct placement.
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