Ascorhombispora
Ascorhombispora L. Cai & K.D. Hyde
Index Fungorum number: IF 29178
Saprobic on submerged bamboo. Sexual morph: Ascomata solitary or gregarious, superficial, uniloculate, globose to subglobose, dark brown to black, with ostiolate papilla. Peridium thin, comprising two layers of relatively thin- walled cells of textura angularis. Pseudoparaphyses absent. Asci 8-spored, bitunicate, obpyriform, broadly clavate to saccate, pedicellate, with rounded apex, deliquescent at maturity. Ascospores overlapping bi- to tri-seriate, broadly fusiform to rhombic, straight, 3-euseptate, not constricted at septa, median septum wide, forming a darker band, central cells large, trapezoid, dark brown to black, verruculose, thick-walled, with bipolar, small, hemispherical, subhyaline to light brown cells, surrounded by gelatinous mucilaginous sheath. Asexual morph: Undetermined. (Cai and Hyde 2007).
Type species: Ascorhombispora aquatica L. Cai & K. D. Hyde
Notes: The monotypic genus Ascorhombispora is typified by A. aquatica L. Cai & K. D. Hyde (Cai and Hyde 2007). The genus is characterized by globose to subglobose ascomata, obpyriform, broadly clavate to saccate, deliquescent asci without a pseudoparaphyses, and rhombic, 3-euseptate, dematiaceous ascospores with smaller, subhyaline, bipolar cells (Cai and Hyde 2007). Ascorhombispora resembles Caryospora in having superficial ascomata, saccate asci and large dematiaceous ascospores with sheath, whereas the latter has larger, carbonaceous ascomata, numerous pseudoparaphyses, fusiform to broad-ellipsoid or biconic ascospores without subhyaline, bipolar cells (Ariyawansa et al. 2015). Phylogenetic analyses clearly separated them (Cai and Hyde 2007; Shearer et al. 2009). Ascorhombispora is morphologically and phylogenetically not conclusively associated with any families in Pleosporales (Shearer et al. 2009). We re-examined the holotype of Ascorhombispora aquatica and did not find the verrucose ascospores mentioned in Cai and Hyde (2007), a feature probably obvious only in fresh specimen. (Description from Dong et al. 2020)
List of freshwater Ascorhombispora species
Ascorhombispora aquatica L. Cai & K. D. Hyde, Cryptog. Mycol. 28: 295 (2007)
Freshwater distribution: China (Cai and Hyde 2007)
References
Cai L, Hyde KD (2007) Anamorphic fungi from freshwater habitats in China: Dictyosporium tetrasporum and Exserticlava yunnanensis spp. nov., and two new records for Pseudofuscophialis lignicola and Pseudobotrytis terrestris. Mycoscience 48:290–296
Dong W, Wang B, Hyde KD, McKenzie EHC, Raja HA, Tanaka K, Abdel-Wahab MA, Abdel-Aziz FA, Doilom M, Phookamsak R, Hongsanan S, Wanasinghe DN, Yu X-D, Wang G-N, Yang H, Yang J, Thambugala KM, Tian Q, Luo Z-L, Yang J-B, Miller AN, Fournier J, Boonmee S, Hu D-M, Nalumpang S, Zhang H (2020) Freshwater Dothideomycetes. Fungal Divers 105:319–575
Shearer CA, Raja HA, Miller AN, Nelson P, Tanaka K, Hirayama K, Marvanová L, Hyde KD, Zhang Y (2009) The molecular phylogeny of freshwater Dothideomycetes. Stud Mycol 64:145–153
Recent Genus
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