Pleosporales » Wicklowiaceae

Wicklowia

Wicklowia Raja, A. Ferrer & Shearer

Index Fungorum number: IF 515225

 

Saprobic on submerged wood. Sexual morph: Ascomata solitary to gregarious, immersed to erumpent, uniloculate, subglobose, flattened dorsiventrally, glabrous, dark brown to black, ostiolate, visible as a black oval to circular, shallow, crater-like depression on the substrate. Peridium thin, composed of several layers of small pseudoparenchymatic cells. Pseudoparaphyses sparse or numerous, cellular, hyaline, septate, embedded in a gel matrix. Asci 8-spored, bitunicate, fissitunicate, cylindric-clavate to broadly clavate, sessile or short pedicellate, rounded at the apex, with an ocular chamber when immature. Ascospores bi- to tri-seriate, ellipsoidal-oblong, rounded at the apices, hyaline, 1-septate, asymmetrical, smooth, thin-walled, surrounded by a distinctly mucilaginous sheath (Raja et al. 2010). Asexual morph: Undetermined. (Description from Dong et al. 2020)

 

Type species: Wicklowia aquatica Raja, A. Ferrer & Shearer

 

Notes: Wicklowia was introduced to accommodate the freshwater species W. aquatica isolated from submerged wood in Costa Rica and Florida (Raja et al. 2010). The second species W. submersa Boonmee et al. was collected from submerged wood in Thailand (Boonmee et al. 2019). Both species share similar morphological characters in the shape and size of ascomata, asci and ascospores (Raja et al. 2010; Boonmee et al. 2019). They can be distinguished by the appendages and sheaths of the ascospores. (Notes from Dong et al. 2020)

 

List of freshwater Wicklowia species

Wicklowia aquatica Raja, A. Ferrer & Shearer, Mycoscience 51: 211 (2010)

Freshwater distribution: USA (Raja et al. 2010a)

 

Wicklowia submersa Boonmee, Sorvongxay & K.D. Hyde, Phytotaxa 411: 76 (2019)

Freshwater distribution: Thailand (Boonmee et al. 2019)

 

Key to freshwater Wicklowia species

1. Ascospores surrounded by a gelatinous sheath, with filamentous appendages             W. aquatica

1. Ascospores surrounded by a distinctly mucilaginous sheath, without any appendages W. submersa

 

References

Boonmee S, Sorvongxay T, Huanraluek N, Hyde KD (2019) Wicklowia submersa sp. nov. (Wicklowiaceae, Pleosporales), a second species in a monotypic family. Phytotaxa 411:73–83

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

Raja HA, Ferrer A, Shearer CA, Miller AN (2010a) Freshwater ascomycetes: Wicklowia aquatica, a new genus and species in the Pleosporales from Florida and Costa Rica. Mycoscience 51:208–214

 

Recent Genus

1
Neochlamydotubeufia
Neohelicomyces

Recent Species

Neohelicomyces submersus
Neohelicomyces hyalosporus
Neohelicomyces grandisporus