Helicomyces
Helicomyces Link, Mag. Gesell. naturf. Freunde, Berlin 3(1–2): 21 (1809).
Index Fungorum number: IF 8476; Facesoffungi number: FoF 00212, 17 morphological species (Species Fungorum 2022), 4 species with molecular data.
Saprobic on woody substrate. Mycelium composed of partly immersed and partly superficial, pale brown, septate, sparsely branched hyphae, with masses of crowded conidia. Sexual morph: Ascomata superficial, seated on a thin subiculum, uniloculate, subglobose, clavate to obovate, coriaceous, solitary to gregarious, pale brown to reddish-brown, centrally ostiolate, perhaps collapsing when dry, with radiating mycelium or appendages at base. Peridium composed of cells of textura angularis, with external pale yellow, or brownish to brown layer, with inner hyaline layer. Hamathecium comprising numerous filiform septate, branched, anastomosing, hyaline pseudoparaphyses. Asci 8-spored, bitunicate, fissitunicate, saccate or cylindric-clavate, apically rounded, with or without an ocular chamber, long pedicellate. Ascospores overlapping fasciculate, elongate, cylindric-subfusiform or narrowly oblong, tapering towards narrow, subacute ends, 10–11-septate, not constricted at septum, hyaline, occasionally pale brown, guttulate when immature, smooth-walled. Asexual morph: Conidiophores macronematous, erect, short, septate, thick-walled, pale to moderately dark brown. Conidiogenous cells monoblastic or polyblastic, terminal or intercalary, integrated, subhyaline, denticulate. Conidia loosely coiled 2½–4 times, becoming loosely uncoiled in water, conidial filament, rounded at apical end, hyaline to pale yellow, multiseptate, with up to 56-septate, slightly constricted at septum, smooth-walled (adapted from Boonmee et al. 2014).
Type species: Helicomyces roseus Link.
Notes: Helicomyces is characterised by superficial subglobose, clavate to obovate ascomata, saccate or cylindric-clavate asci and fasciculate, elongate, cylindric-subfusiform ascospores. Tubeufia cylindrothecia is the asexual state of Helicomyces roseus and was first described by Seaver and Waterston (1940) and later by Barr (1980). Tsui and Berbee (2006) and Tsui et al. (2006, 2007) reported that Helicomyces are polyphyletic with sexual states in Acanthostigma and Tubeufia. In the phylogenetic analyses of Boonmee et al. (2014), two isolates of Tubeufia paludosa and two species of Helicosporium clustered with H. roseus. The authors referred this clade as Helicomyces sensu stricto based on authentic sequences of Helicomyces roseus. Helicomyces is morphologically and phylogenetically a distinct genus in Tubeufiaceae. Molecular markers available for Helicomyces include ITS, LSU, SSU, TEF-1 and RPB2.
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