Genus

Heleococcum

Species

japonense

Author

Tubaki, 1967. Trans. Mycol. Soc. Jpn, 8: 5.

Class

Sordariomycetes, Subclass Hypocreomycetidae

Order

Hypocreales

Family

Bionectriaceae

Synonymy:

Heleococcum C.A. Jørg., Botanisk Tidsskrift 37 (5): 417 (1922)

Type species: Heleococcum aurantiacum C.A. Jørg., Botanisk Tidsskrift 37 (5): 417 (1921)

Marine species:

Heleococcum japonense Tubaki, 1967. Trans. Mycol. Soc. Jpn, 8: 5.

Index Fungorum Number:                          Faceoffungi Number:

Sexual morph: saprobic, ascomata: 250-400 µm in diam., globose, superficial, nonostiolate, cleistothecial, membranaceous, white to orange, or pale brown, gregarious. Peridium: thin, transparent, pseudoparenchymatous, composed of several layers of angular or rounded cells, smooth, dissolving irregularly at maturity. Paraphyses: absent. Asci: 44-50 x 30-40 µm, 8-spored, globose or subglobose, sessile, unitunicate, thin-walled, aphysoclastic, without apical apparatuses, scattered irregularly in the venter of ascomata, deliquescing at spore maturity. Ascospores: 18-21 x 10-13 µm, ellipsoidal or ovoidal, 1-septate in the middle, not constricted at the septum, smooth or slightly rough, thick-walled, hyaline. Asexual morph: Conidiophores: 20-28 x 3-4 mm, mostly unbranched, erect, developing from aerial hyphae. Conidia: 8-12 x 3-4 µm, ellipsoidal, hyaline, originating as blown-out ends of the conidiophores and accumulating in the loose clusters; imperfect state of the Trichothecium type (Description: Based on Tubaki (1967)).  

 

Key references:

Borse BD, Bhat DJ, Borse KN, Tuwas AR, Pawar NS (2012) Marine Fungi of India. Broadway Book Centre, India.  

Jones EBG, Suetrong S, Sakayaroj J, Bahkali AH, Abdel-Wahab MA, Boekhout T, Pang KL (2015) Classification of marine Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, Blastocladiomycota and Chytridiomycota. Fungal Diversity 73: 1-72.

Maharachchikumbura SSN, Hyde KD, Jones EBG, Mckenzie EHC, Huang SK, Abdel-Wahab MA et al. (2015) Towards a natural classification and backbone tree for Sordariomycetes. Fungal Diversity 72: 199-299.

Rossman AY, Samuels GJ, Rogerson CT, Lowen R (1999) Genera of Bionectriaceae, Hypocreaceae, and Nectriaceae (Hypocreales, Ascomycetes). Stud. Mycol. 42: 1-260.

Tzean SS, Hsioeh WH, Cheng TT, Wu SH (eds.) (2005) Fungal Flora of Taiwan, Vol 2. pp. 675-676.National Science Council, Taiwan.

Tubaki K (1967) An undescribed species of Heleococcum from Japan. Transactions of the Mycological Society of Japan. 8(1): 5-10.

Vittal, B.P.R. and Sarma, V.V. (2006) Diversity and ecology of fungi on mangroves of Bay of Bengal region-An overview. Indian Journal of Marine Sciences 35: 308-317.

Type & Location:
Other Specimens:
Substratum:
On intertidal wood test panels of Abies firma and balsa, also mangrove wood.
Habitat:
Distribution:
India, Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan
Pertinent Literature:
Comments:
NOTES: Heleococcum japonense is a little known marine ascomycete but has been reported many times from India on mangrove wood (Vittal & Sarma 2006, Borse et al. 2012). This species was collected at Chiayi, Tingshih, Taiwan in 1989 and is well illustrated in Tzean et al. (2005). Initially described from an isolate from a wood panel in the sea in Hokkaido, Japan (Tubaki, 1967). The culture of this fungus has been maintained at the Institute for Fermentation, Osaka (IFO 8643), Japan, and still produces its ascomata and conidia. H. japonense differs from the first described Heleococcum species in its non-areolated ascomatal wall, rough-walled ascospores and the presence of an Acremonium-like anamorph. Sequence data is not available for H. japonense but is accepted in the Bionectriaceae by Rossman xxx (www). The species is accepted by Jones et a. (2015) and Maharachchikumbura et al. (2015).

Address

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Contact

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