Pleosporales » Amniculicolaceae » Murispora

Murispora aquatica

Murispora aquatica D.F. Bao, Z.L. Luo, K.D. Hyde & H.Y. Su

 

Index Fungorum number: IF556556; Facesoffungi number: FoF 06255

Etymology: referring to the aquatic habitat of this fungus

Holotype: MFLU 19–0990

 

Saprobic on decaying submerged wood in freshwater habitats. Sexual morph: Ascomata 180–280 × 180–250 μm ( = 221.3 × 213.6 μm, n = 10), carbonaceous, solitary, globose to subglobose, papillate, dark brown to black, semiimmersed to immersed, scattered, substrate stained red to purple, fused to the host tissue, ostiolate. Ostiole 60–85 μm high ( = 73.2 μm, n = 5) round to papillate, short, outer cells brown to black, inner cells pale brown to hyaline. Peridium 18–33 μm wide comprising several layers grayish brown to black cells of textura angularis and globulosa. Hamathecium comprising 2–3 μm (n = 30) wide, branched, septate, hyaline, cellular pseudoparaphyses. Asci 123–150 × 14–17 μm ( = 137 × 15.7 μm, n = 20), 8-spored, bitunicate, fissitunicate, cylindric-clavate, pedicellate, with a small ocular chamber. Ascospores 21–25 × 8–10 μm ( = 23 × 9 μm, n = 30), overlapping, 1–2-seriate, ellipsoidal to fusiform, narrow and rounded at both ends, muriform, 4–6 transverse septa, 1–2 longitudinal septa in all cells and rarely in end cells, slightly constricted at transverse septa, deeply constricted at middle transverse septa, hyaline when young, becoming dark brown at mature, smooth, surrounded by a distinct mucilaginous sheath. Asexual morph: Undetermined.

 

Specimen examined: CHINA, Yunnan Province, Cangshan Mountain, saprobic on decaying wood submerged in a freshwater stream. May 2017, S.M. Tang, S-853 (MFLU 19–0990, holotype), ex-type culture, MFLUCC 17–2221 = ICMP 21832

 

Notes: Morphologically, Murispora aquatica have similar shaped asci and ascospores as M. hawksworthii and both can stain the wood purple. However, M. aquatica differs from M. hawksworthii in having smaller asci (123– 150 × 14–17 μm vs. 150–200 × 20–28 μm) and shorter ascospores (21–25 × 8–10 μm vs. 25–35 × 8–12 μm). In our phylogenetic analyses, Murispora aquatica clustered with M. hawksworthii with strong support. Moreover, we compapared the basepairs of ITS and TEF1-α gene regions and there were 17 and 14 base pair differences, respectively. These results strongly support our isolate to be a new species (Jeewon & Hyde 2016). Therefore, we introduce our isolate as a new species based on both phylogeny and morphological characters.

 

References:

Bao D.F., Wanasinghe D.N., Luo Z.L., Mortimer P.E., Kumar V., Su H.Y. and Hyde K.D. (2019). Murispora aquatica sp. nov. and Murispora fagicola, a new record from freshwater habitat in China. Phytotaxa, 416(1): 1-13. https://doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.416.1.1

Jeewon R. & Hyde K.D. (2016) Establishing species boundaries and new taxa among fungi: recommendations to resolve taxonomic ambiguities. Mycosphere 7: 1669–1677. https://doi.org/10.5943/mycosphere/7/11/4

 

 Fig 1. Murispora aquatica (MFLU 19–0990, holotype). a–c. Ascomata on wood, d. Section of ascoma, e. Close up of ostiole, f. Peridium, g. Pseudoparaphyses, h–j. Asci, k–n. Ascospores, o. Ascospore stain in Indian Ink, with mucilaginous sheath, p. Germinating ascospore, q, r. Culture on PDA from surface and reverse. Scale bars: d = 100 μm, e = 50 μm, f– h = 25 μm, i–j = 35 μm, k–p = 10 μm (Photo grabbed from Bao et al. 2019)

 

 

 

 

 

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