Brachiosphaera
Brachiosphaera Nawawi
Index Fungorum number: IF 7438
Saprobic on submerged wood, wet wood and river foam. Sexual morph: Undetermined. Asexual morph: Colonies effuse, mycelium mostly immersed. Hyphae varying in width, septate, hyaline at first, turning olivaceous brown with age. Conidiophores macronematous, erect, unbranched, hyaline, septate, of variable length. Conidiogenous cells holoblastic, sympodial. Conidia acrogenous, tetraradiate, clustered in chains, ellipsoid or round-shaped, with 4–10 conidial arms, each 1–4-septate (Nawawi and Webster 1976; Suetrong et al. 2011a). (Descriptions from Dong et al. 2020)
Notes: Brachiosphaera species are commonly recorded in freshwater habitats as listed below. The genus is characterized by tetraradiate conidia with a round central cell with 4–10 arms, each of them 1–4-septate (Nawawi and Webster 1976; Suetrong et al. 2011a). The conidia of B. tropicalis consist of a brown, spherical body and furnished with 4–5 arms, which are longer than 1.5 times diam. of the central part (Nawawi and Webster 1976; Suetrong et al. 2011a). Currently, B. tropicalis is phylogenetically related to Jahnulales. (Notes from Dong et al. 2020)
Type species: Brachiosphaera Nawawi, in Descals, Newawi & Webster, Trans. Br. mycol. Soc. 67(2): 213 (1976)
Key to freshwater Brachiosphaera species (Dong et al. 2020)
1. Conidia with 4–5 arms…....................... B. tropicalis
1. Conidia with 6–10, up to 10–13 arms…..B. jamaicensis
References:
Dong W, Wang B, Hyde KD, et al (2020) Freshwater Dothideomycetes. Fungal Divers 105:319–575
Nawawi A, Webster J (1976) Developmental studies in Actinospora and three similar aquatic hyphomycetes. Transactions of the British Mycological Society 67, 207–222
Suetrong S, Boonyuen N, Pang KL, Ueapattanakit J et al. (2011) A taxonomic revision and phylogenetic reconstruction of the Jahnulales (Dothideomycetes), and the new family Manglicolaceae. Fungal Diversity 51, 163–188
Recent Genus
1Neochlamydotubeufia
Neohelicomyces
Recent Species
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Neohelicomyces grandisporus