Wicklowia
Wicklowia Raja, A. Ferrer & Shearer, in Raja et al., Mycoscience 51(3): 210 (2010).
Index Fungorum number: IF 515225; Facesoffungi number: FoF 08388, 1 morphological species (Species Fungorum 2022), 1 species with molecular data.
Saprobic on host. Sexual morph: Ascomata subglobose, flattened dorsiventrally, ostiolate, immersed becoming erumpent, solitary to gregarious, appearing as a black oval to circular, shallow, crater-like depression on the substrate. Peridial wall of 4–5 layers of small pseudoparenchymatic cells. Pseudoparaphyses septate, sparse. Asci fissitunicate, in a gel matrix, broadly clavate, rounded at the apex. Ascospores cylindrical, thin-walled, rounded at the apices, hyaline, one-septate, slightly constricted at the septum, surrounded by a gelatinous sheath that expands in water; sheath attached at the base with a gelatinous curtain extending downward from the base that fragments into filamentous appendages forming a subapical fringe around the ascospore base. Asexual morph: Unknown (adapted from Raja et al. 2010).
Type species: Wicklowia aquatica Raja, A. Ferrer & Shearer
Notes: Wicklowia is characterised by subglobose, flattened dorsiventrally ascomata, broadly clavate asci and cylindrical, thin-walled ascospores surrounded with a gelatinous sheath forming a subapical fringe around the ascospore base. Wicklowia resembles Amniculicola in having hyaline, one-septate ascospores enclosed in a gelatinous sheath and a saprobic lifestyle on wood in freshwater habitats (Zhang et al. 2008). Wicklowia differs from Amniculicola in having cylindrical to narrowly fusiform asci with obliquely uniseriate and somewhat overlapping ascospores while Amniculicola has cylindrical asci with uniseriate ascospores (Zhang et al. 2008). Wicklowia also differs from Amniculicola in having a sheath with basal filamentous appendages whereas Amniculicola has a sheath which is irregular and not anchored at the base (Zhang et al. 2008). Wicklowia is also similar to Massarina in having clavate, short-stalked asci, and one-septate, hyaline ascospores with a gelatinous sheath (Bose 1961, Hyde 1995, Aptroot 1998, Tanaka & Harada 2003, Zhang et al. 2009, Raja et al. 2010). Wicklowia differs from Massarina in having smaller ascomata, asci, and ascospores and a different ascospore sheath (Raja et al. 2010) while members of Massarina have rather large ascospores with no sheath (Aptroot 1998, Tanaka & Harada 2003). Wicklowia is phylogenetically distinct from Amniculicola and Massarina. Wicklowia is also similar to Ascominuta in having small ascomata and hyaline, one-septate ascospores with a gelatinous sheath that swells in water (Ranghoo & Hyde 2000). Wicklowia can be differentiated from Ascominuta in ascus morphology with the former genus having 8-spored clavate asci, broadly rounded at the apex compared to Ascominuta which has 4-spored globose asci (Ranghoo & Hyde 2000) however, these two genera are phylogenetically distinct. Wicklowia is morphologically and phylogenetically a distinct and well-supported genus in its own family Wicklowiaceae. Molecular markers available for Wicklowia are ITS, LSU, SSU, RPB2 and TEF-1.
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