Genus

Aegeanispora

Species

elanii

Author

E.B.G. Jones & Abdel-Wahab, Bot. Mar. 60(4): 470 (2017)

Class

Dothideomycetes

Order

Pleosporales

Family

Incertae sedis, Subclass Pleosporomycetidae

Synonymy:

Description

Aegeanispora E.B.G. Jones & Abdel-Wahab, Bot Mar 60 (4): 470 (2017).

MycoBank: 818743

Saprobic marine ascomycete. Sexual stage: Unknown. Asexual stage: Conidiomata pycnidial, globose to subglobose, papillate, ostiolate, solitary. Peridium two-layered, outer layer hyaline, inner layer yellow-brown to brown. Conidiogenous cells holoblastic, cylindrical, hyphal cell-like, determinate, producing a single conidium and a tubular, septate extension (paraphyses) below the delimiting septum of the conidium. Conidia hyaline, unicellular, globose, subglobose, ovate, surrounded by ephemeral large gelatinous sheath.

Type species:

Aegeanispora elanii E.B.G. Jones & Abdel-Wahab, Bot Mar 60(4): 470 (2017).

MycoBank: 818744

Saprobic marine ascomycete. Sexual stage: Unknown. Asexual stage: Conidiomata pycnidial 250–300 μm in diam., globose to subglobose, papillate, ostiolate, solitary (Figure 2). Peridium 35–50 μm thick, forming textura angularis, thicker in size around the ostiole than the thickness of the peridium around the pycnidial venter, two-layered; outer layer 11–30 μm, hyaline, consisting of thin-walled, polygonal cells encrusted with melanin particles; inner layer 8–22 μm thick, yellow-brown to brown in color, consisting of compressed, polygonal cells with narrow lumina (Figures 3 and 4). Conidiophores absent. Conidiogenous cells 7–10 × 2.5–4.5 μm, holoblastic, cylindrical, determinate, producing a single conidium and tubular septate extension (paraphyses) below the delimiting septum of the conidium. Paraphyses 35–63 × 1.5–2 μm, cylindrical, curved or irregular in shape, septate, hyphae-like (Figures 5–8). Conidia 7–10 × 7–9 μm (mean = 8.7 × 7.9 μm, n = 50), hyaline, unicellular, globose, subglobose, ovate, surrounded by an ephemeral large gelatinous sheath. Sexual stage unknown.

Key references:

Abdel-Wahab MA, Dayarathne MC, Suetrong S, Guo SY,Alias SA, Bahkali AH, Nagahama T, Elgorban AM, Abdel-Aziz FA, Hodhod MS, Al-Hebshi MO, Hyde KD, Nor NABM, Pang KL, Jones EBG (2017). New saprobic marine fungi and a new combination. Bot Mar 60(4):469-488.

Abdel-Wahab MA, Bahkali AH (2012). Taxonomy of filamentous anamorphic marine fungi: morphology and molecular evidence. In: (E.B.G. Jones and K.L. Pang, eds) Marine fungi and fungal-like organisms. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin. pp. 65–90.

Badali H, Chander J, Gulati N, Attri A, Chopra R, Najafzadeh MJ, Chhabra S, Meis JFGM, de Hoog GS. 2010. Subcutaneous phaeohyphomycotic cyst caused by Pyrenochaeta romeroi. Med Biol 48: 763–768.

De Gruyter J, Woudenberg JHC, Aveskamp MM, Verkley GJM, Groenewald JZ, Crous PW (2012). Redisposition of Phoma–like anamorphs in Pleosporales. Stud Mycol 75: 1–36.

Kohlmeyer J, Kohlmeyer E (1979). Marine mycology. The higher fungi. Academic Press, New York. pp. 690.

Image:

Aegeanispora elanii (holotype). (2) Vertical section of pycnidium. (3–4) Sections through the peridium. (5–7) Squash of pycnidia showing conidia and paraphyses. (8) Young developing conidia and paraphyses. (9–11) Variously shaped conidia surrounded by a gelatinous coat. Scale bars: 2 = 70 μm; 3, 5–6 = 20 μm; 4, 8–9 = 10 μm; 7, 10-11 = 5 μm.

Type & Location:

Other Specimens:

Substratum:

decaying driftwood

Habitat:

Distribution:

Turkey

Pertinent Literature:

Comments:

Kohlmeyer and Kohlmeyer (1979) listed 21 coelomycetes from marine habitats, while Abdel-Wahab and Bahkali (2012) listed 34 marine coelomycetes and 11 unnamed pycnidial stages of known marine ascomycetes. Aegeanispora elanii is different from all described marine coelomycetes by having pycnidia with a hyaline outer peridial wall, a brown inner wall, and unicellular conidia with a large gelatinous sheath and paraphyses. Phylogenetic analyses of combined 18S and 28S rDNA placed the fungus in a monophyletic clade basal to the marine fungal family Morosphaeriaceae and a neighbor clade to Medicopsis romeroi and Ascocylindrica marina but with no statistical support. Aegeanispora elanii cannot be accommodated in the genus Medicopsis because M. romeroi has setose pycnidia with long necks, that are olivaceous to olivaceous-black with phialidic conidiogenous cells and is a human pathogen (Badali et al. 2010, De Gruyter et al. 2012). Therefore, a new genus Aegeanispora was introduced to accommodate this taxon.

Images

Fig 2