Genus

Diatrypasimilis

Species

australiensis

Author

J. Zhou et Kohlm., Mycologia 102(2): 432 (2010)

Class

Subclass Xylariomycetidae

Order

Xylariales

Family

Diatrypaceae

Synonymy:

Sexual morph: Stroma black and thick that covers the surface of the wood, 0.8 – 3 mm thick of black fungal tissues, indeterminate in size and covering the whole surface of the wood sample. Ascomata 2.5 – 3.7 mm in height, 2.8 – 5.4 mm in width, deeply immersed under flattened stroma, subglobose to ovate, slightly flattened.  Ascospores usually oozing out of the ostiole of the ascomata and forming black masses on the surface of the wood. Neck 0.8 – 1.5 mm long, 0.8 – 1.2 mm wide. Ostiolar canal 0.2 – 0.7 mm wide, cylindrical, filled with periphyses. Peridium 80 – 115 μ m thick, dark-brown to black in colour, consisting of two layers; outer layer 60 – 95 μ m thick, with thick-walled polygonal cells forming textura angularis, brown to dark-brown in colour and mixed with the host cells and inner layer 18 – 30 μ m thick, consisting of flattened, thin-walled cells that are faint reddish-brown in colour. Hamathecium 1 μ m thick, non-septate, embedded in gel, numerous, anastomosing above asci. Asci 160 – 200 × 7 – 9 μ m (172.5 × 7.4 μ m, n = 20), cylindrical, uniseriate, unitunicate with long basal nonsporing part, with apical ring and amyloid plug. Ascospores 11 – 15 × 4 – 7 μ m (12.9 × 5.7 μ m, n = 50), ellipsoidal, dark-brown, unicellular, with longitudinal germ slit, smooth. Asexual stage: Colonies of the fungal isolates derived from single spores are white in colour when young and synnemata-like structures developed when aged with yellow-orange to dark-brown exudates distributed irregularly on mycelia and in the culture media. Conidia 12 – 25 × 1 – 3 μ m, hyaline, unicellular, cylindrical, or clavate in shape, holoblastic, produced singly on conidiogenous cells, and seldom produced on corn meal and PDA seawater agar media after up to 3 months incubation. (Description based on Abdel-Wahab et al. (2014)).

 

Key references:

Abdel-Wahab MA, Hodhod MS, Bahkali AHA, Jones EBG (2014). Marine fungi of Saudi Arabia. Botanica Marina 57: 323-335.

Chalkley, D.B., S.O. Suh, B. Volkmann-Kohlmeyer, J. Kohlmeyer and J.J. Zhou. 2010. Diatrypasimilis australiensis, a novel xylarialean fungus from mangrove. Mycologia 102: 430 – 437.

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 Sordariomcyetes. Fungal Diversity 72: 199-299.

Type & Location:
Other Specimens:
Substratum:
saprobic on mangrove wood.
Habitat:
Distribution:
Australia, Saudi Arabia.
Pertinent Literature:
Comments:
NOTE: Diatrypasimilis australiensis was described based on a culture deposited at the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC), which was isolated from decaying Rhizophora wood in an Australian mangrove (Chalkley et al. 2010). Although the ribosomal DNA genes were sequenced and the fungus was characterized in culture, the authors did not fully characterize the morphology of the fungus on natural substrates, apparently because of a lack of material. The Red Sea isolate of D. australiensis is different from the type species in having deeply immersed ascomata that are larger in size. The ascospores are similar in size, however, the difference between the two collections did not warrant separation at the species level (Abdel-Wahab et al. 2014). The genus is assigned to the Diatrypaceae (Xylariales) forming a sister clade to Creosphaeria sassafras and is accepted by Jones et al. (2015) and Maharachchikumbura et al. (2015).

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