Genus

Torpedospora

Species

radiata

Author

Meyers

Class

Sordariomycetes, Subclass Hypocreomycetidae

Order

Torpedosporales

Family

Torpedosporaceae

Synonymy:

Description

Ascomata: 100-300 μm high, 120-328 μm diam., solitary or gregarious, globose, subglobose to pyriform, superficial or immersed, ostiolate, papillate, subcoriaceous, dark brown above, subhyaline, gray or brownish below.

Necks: 100-320 μm high, 26-70 μm diam., cylindrical, light brown to black.

Peridium: two-layered, with an outer layer of cells of textura angularis and an inner layer of elongated cells. Paraphyses present.

Asci: 46-66 × 14-23 μm, eight-spored, clavate, short pedunculate, without an apical apparatus, thin-walled, unitunicate, deliquescing early.

Ascospores: 20-81 × 4-8 μm, cylindrical or clavate, broader at the apex, tri-septate, not or slightly constricted at the septa, hyaline. Appendages three or four, rarely five, radiating on the lower end, 19-34 × 1.5-3 μm, semi-rigid, straight or slightly curved, with a thick base, tapering towards the apex. Asexual morph Undetermined.

Culture: -

Anamorph: undetermined.

Key references:

Abdel-Wahab MA, Pang KL, Nagahama T, Abdel-Aziz FA, Jones EBG. (2010) Phylogenetic evaluation of the marine Cirrenalia and Cumulospora species in the Lulworthiales, with the description of three new anamorphic genera. Mycological Progress 9: 537-558.

Alias SA, Jones EBG. (2000) Colonization of mangrove wood by marine fungi at Kuala Selangor mangrove stand. In: Aquatic Mycology across the Millennium (Hyde KD, Ho WH, Pointing SB, eds.), Fungal Diversity Press, Hong Kong. pp. 9-21.

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. DOI 10.1007/s13225-015-0339-4.

Sakayaroj J, Pang KL, Jones EBG, Phongpaichit S, Vrijmoed LLP, Abdel-Wahab MA. (2005) A systematic reassessment of the marine ascomycetes: Torpedospora and Swampomyces. Botanica Marina 48: 395-406.

Tan TK, Leong WF, Jones EBG. (1989) Succession of fungi on wood of Avicennia alba and Avicennia lanata in Singapore. Canadian Journal of Botany 67: 2686-2691.

Key to species:

1. Ascospores with appendages at one end, longer than 30 μm T. radiata

1. Ascospores with appendages at both ends, shorter than 25 μm T. ambispinosa

Image: Torpedospora radiata. (a) Section of immersed, ellipsoidal ascoma. (b) Two-layered peridium, outer layer of cells of textura angularis, inner layer of elongated cells. (c) Clavate asci at different stages of development. (d) Ascospore 3-septate, with 4 radiating appendages at one end. Scale bar: a=50 μm; b, d=10 μm; c=30 μm. Photo reproduced with the permission of the National Taiwan Ocean University.

Type & Location:

Other Specimens:

Substratum:

dead mangrove wood, sand, seagrasses, dead leaves, dead bamboo, driftwood.

Habitat:

Distribution:

Australia, Bahamas, Belize, Brazil, Brunei, Egypt, France, Galapagos, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Italy, Ivory Coast, Japan, Kuwait, Liberia, Malaysia, Martinique, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Portugal, Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, Samoa, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Society Islands, Sri Lanka, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, USA, Wales.

Pertinent Literature:

Mycologia 49: 496 (1957)

Comments:

This is a common species and has a worldwide distribution on woody substrata, generally in oceanic waters. A second species T. ambispinosa is generally found in temperate waters and is less common than T. radiata. Although they differ morphologically from one another, they have been shown to be monophyletic (Sakayaroj et al. 2005). The genus is assigned to the new order Torpedosporales based on based on a multi gene study (Jones et al. 2015). The asexual taxon Glomerulispora mangrovis groups with T. radiata with high support, but they ae not monophyletic and the link has not been proven by culture observations (Abdel-Wahab et al. 2010). Torpedospora radiata generally occurs on decorticated wood, but has rarely been reported in the colonization of submerged wood in the sea (Tan et al. 1989; Alias and Jones 2000).

Images

Fig 2