Pleosporales » Torulaceae » Torula

Torula masonii

Torula masonii Crous

Index Fungorum number: IF 812806; Facesoffungi number: FoF 02711

Holotype: CBS H-22278

Etymology: Named after Edmund W. Mason, first mycologist at the Imperial Bureau of Mycology at Kew, and a President of the British Mycological Society, who collected this species.

 

Saprobic on submerged decaying wood. Sexual morph: Undetermined. Asexual morph: Colonies effuse on natural substrate, scattered, hairy, brown. Mycelium immersed to superficial, composed of hyaline, becoming brown closer to fertile region, septate, branched hyphae. Conidiophores semi-macronematous mononematous, solitary on mycelium, erect or bent, septate, smooth, straight or slightly flexuous, dark brown to black, 10–20 μm (x̄ = 15 μm, SD = 5, n = 10) long, 4–6 μm (x̄ = 5 μm, SD = 1, n = 10) wide. Conidiogenous cells holoblastic, polyblastic, integrated, terminal, cylindrical, brown, collapsing on secession of conidia. Conidia in branched chains, dry, acrogenous, brown to dark brown, pale brown or subhyaline at apex, constricted at septa, verrucose, easily separating, with terminal conidiogenous cell collapsing when present, 3–5-septate, 25–35 μm (x̄ = 30 μm, SD = 5, n = 30) long, 6–7 μm (x̄ = 6.5 μm, SD = 0.5, n = 30) wide. (Descriptions from Su et al. 2018)

 

Material examined: CHINA, Yunnan Province, submerged decaying wood in Lake Erhai, June 2015, Z.L. Luo, 3EHL H 56–4 (MFLU 17–1405), living culture, KUMCC 15–0297

 

Notes: Torula masonii was introduced by Crous et al. (2015) from sporulating culture which was collected from Brassica sp. in UK. Thereafter, Li et al. (2017b) reported T. masonii on a dead aerial stem of Iris germanica from Italy. During our investigation on diversity of lignicolous freshwater in Yunnan (China), an isolate was collected from submerged decaying wood in Lake Erhai. Morphological characters such as macronematous conidiophores, polyblastic, cylindrical conidiogenous cells and dry, acrogenous, brown, constricted at septa, verrucose conidia in branched chains and sizes of conidiophores and conidia fit well within the species concept of Torula masonii. According to the phylogenetic study, our strain clusters well with T. masonii (CBS 245.57, KUMCC 16–0033). We therefore identify our isolate as T. masonii, and this is the first record for China. (Notes from Su et al. 2018)

 

Freshwater distribution: China (Su et al. 2018)

 

Fig 1. Torula masonii (MFLU 17–1405). a. Colonies on wood. b-d. Conidiophores and conidia. f–l. Conidia. m. Germinating conidia. Scale bars: b = 50 μm, c–g, j = 25 μm, and h, i, k–m = 15 μm. (Su et al. 2018)

 

References

Crous PW, Carris LM, Giraldo A, Groenewald JZ, Hawksworth DL, Hernández-Restrepo M, Jaklitsch WM, Lebrun MH, Schumacher RK, Stielow JB (2015a) The genera of fungi-fixing the application of the type species of generic names–G 2: Allantophomopsis, Latorua, Macrodiplodiopsis, Macrohilum, Milospium, Protostegia, Pyricularia, Robillarda, Rotula, Septoriella, Torula, and Wojnowicia. IMA fungus 6:163–198

Li JF, Phookamsak R, Jeewon R, Bhat DJ, Mapook A, Camporesi E, Shang QJ, Chukeatirote E, Bahkali AH, Hyde KD (2017) Molecular taxonomy and morphological characterization reveal new species and new host records of Torula species (Torulaceae, Pleosporales). Mycol Prog 16:447–461

Su XJ, Luo ZL, Jeewon R, Bhat DJ, Bao DF, Li WL, Hao YE, Su HY, Hyde KD (2018) Morphology and multigene phylogeny reveal new genus and species of Torulaceae from freshwater habitats in northwestern Yunnan, China. Mycol Prog 17:531–545

 

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