Genus

Aigialus

Species

parvus

Author

S. Schatz & Kohlm., Trans. Br. Mycol. Soc. 85: 704 (1986) [1985]

Class

Dothideomycetes, Subclass Pleosporomycetidae

Order

Pleosporales

Family

Aigialaceae

Synonymy:

Type species:

Aigialus grandis Kohlm. & Schatz, Trans. Br. Mycol. Soc. 85: 704 (1986)

Common marine species:

Aigialus parvus S. Schatz & Kohlm., Trans. Br. Mycol. Soc. 85: 704 (1986) [1985]

Sexual morph: Ascomata 788-1257 μm high, 954-1333μm wide, 305-405μm thick, subglobose in frontal view, fusiform in sagittal section, laterally compressed, immersed in a black stroma, with a longitudinal furrow at the top, ostiolate, carbonaceous to coriaceous, black, gregarious. 50-70 μm diam., depressed or slightly projecting, circular, ostiolar canal subglobose, filled with branched or forked septate periphyses, 3-4 μm thick. Peridium two-layered, outer layer 40-90 μm thick and clypeoid near the ostiole, 15-45 μm at the sides, composed of elongated, more or less irregular cells, encrusted with melanin particles, interspersed with cells of the host, inner layer 7-15 μm thick, composed of smaller, hyaline cells that merge with pseudoparaphyses, the peridium extends at the base into the locule with brown strands composed of pseudoparaphyses that separate above, become hyaline and are surrounded by a gelatinous matrix. Pseudoparaphyses 1.5-2 μm diam., trabeculate, unbranched at the base becoming branched and anastomosing above the asci, embedded in a gelatinous matrix. Asci 300-420 × 30-35 μm, eight-spored, cylindrical, pedunculate, thick-walled, fissitunicate, with a refractive apical plate in the ectoascus and a refractive apical ring in the endoascus, not bluing in IKI, ring 10-14.3 μm diam., 3.9-5.8 μm high, 3.1-3.0 μm thick. Ascospores (43.7-)49.4-71.3(-74.4) μm long, 19.4-25.9(-27.2) μm wide, (14.7)-16.2- 20.9(-22.1) μm thick, biseriate, ellipsoidal to broadly fusiform, muriform, with (9-)10-11(-12) trans-septa and 1-3 longi-septa, yellow-brown except for hyaline to light brown apical cells, glabrous, with a gelatinous cap around apical and subapical cells. Asexual morph: Undetermined. (Description based on Pang et al. (2011)).

 

Key references:

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

Barr ME. (1979) A classification of Loculoascomycetes. Mycologia 71: 935-957.

Hawksworth DL, Kirk PM, Sutton BC, Pegler DN. (1995) Dictionary of the Fungi. 8th Edition. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. P 616.

Hyde KD, Jones EBG, Ariyawansha H, Liu JK, Binder M, Jayawardene N, Boehm E, Boonmee S et al. (2013) Families of Dothideomycetes. Fungal Diversity 63: 1-313.

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.

Kohlmeyer J, Schatz S. (1985) Aigialus gen. nov. (Ascomycetes) with two new marine species from mangroves. Transactions of the British Mycological Society 85: 699-707.

Leong WF, Tan TK, Jones EBG. (1991) Fungal colonization of submerged Bruguiera cylindrica and Rhizophora apiculata wood. Botanica Marina 34: 69-76.

Pang KL, Jheng JS, Jones EBG (2011) Marine mangrove fungi of Taiwan.  National Taiwan Ocean Univ., Chilung, pp. 1-131

Suetrong S, Schoch CL, Spatafora JW, Kohlmeyer J, Volkmann-Kohlmeyer B, Sakayaroj J, Phongpaichit S, Tanaka K, Hirayama K, Jones EBG. (2009) Molecular systematics of the marine Dothideomycetes. Studies in Mycology 64: 155-173.

 Tam WY, Pang KL, Jones EBG. (2003) Ordinal placement of selected marine bitunicate ascomycetes inferred from SSU ribosomal DNA sequence analysis. Botanica Marina 46:487-494. 

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 Aigialus species:

  1. Ascospores with 6-7 transverse septa                                                                                            2
  1. Ascospores with more than 8 transverse septa                                                                               3
  1. Ascospores 35-55 x 10-16 μm, spore wall smooth                                                                           A. mangrovei
  1. Ascospores 26-38 x 16-19.5 μ, spore wall with striations                                                                  A. striatispora
  1. Ascospores with (9)-10-11-(12) transverse septa, 49-72 x 19-26 μm                                                A. parvus
  1. Ascospores with more than 13 transverse septa                                                                              4
  1. Ascospores with 14-17 transverse septa, 1-3 longi septa, 67-101 x 18-29 μm                                    A. grandis
  1. Ascospores 13-15 transverse septa, 1-4 longi septa, 70-95 x 18-25 μm                                            A. rhizophorae

 

Image: Aigialus parvus. (a) Section of a group of ascomata immersed in wood. (b) Peridium.
(c, d) Immature and mature bitunicate asci. (e, f) Immature and mature ascospores. Scale bar:
a=300 μm; b, e, f= 30 μm; c, d=50 μm. Photo reproduced with the permission of the National Taiwan Ocean University. 

Type & Location:
Other Specimens:
Substratum:
saprobic on dead mangrove wood, dead mangrove leaves.
Habitat:
Distribution:
Andaman Islands, Australia, Brunei, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Maldives, Nicobar Islands, Philippines, Seychelles, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, USA.
Pertinent Literature:
Comments:
NOTES: Currently, five species are accepted in the genus (Jones et al., 2015). The genus was initially assigned to the Melanommatales (Kohlmeyer & Schatz 1985). Subsequently, Barr (1979) suggested its affinity to the families Didymosphaeriaceae, Fenestellaceae, Microglaenaceae and Trypetheliaceae, but these were rejected. Hawksworth et al. (1995) referred the genus to the Massariaceae (order Pyrenulales) while Tam et al. (2003), based on sequence data, showed it belonged in the Pleosporales. Suetrong et al. (2009) introduced a new family, the Aigialaceae (Pleosporales), to accommodate the marine genera Aigialus, Ascocratera and Rimora, based on sequence data. Placement of the genus in the Dothediomycetes is accepted by Hyde et al (2013) and Jones et al. (2015). It is a widely collected species on diverse wood of mangrove trees, prop roots of Rhizophora apiculata and roots and pneumatophores of Avicennia sp. It is often an early coloniser of submerged mangrove wood in Mandai mangrove, Singapore (Tan et al. 1989, Leong et al. 1991), Morib mangrove, Malaysia (Alias & Jones 2000) and mangroves of Taiwan O(Pang et al. 2011).
  • Fig 1
    Fig 1

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