Dactylidispora Y. Marin , Stchigel, Guarro & Cano

Marin-Felix, Yasmina, Guarro, Josep, ano-Lira, Jose F., Garcia, Dania, iller, Andrew N. & Stchigel, Alberto M., 2018, Melanospora (Sordariomycetes, Ascomycota) and its relatives, MycoKeys 44, pp. 81-122 : 81

Dactylidispora Y. Marin, Stchigel, Guarro & Cano gen. nov.

Type species.

Dactylidispora ellipsospora (Takada) Y. Marín, Stchigel, Guarro & Cano. Holotype and ex-type strain: NBRC 31376.

Description.

Ascomata superficial, globose to pyriform, ostiolate or not, yellowish-brown, appearing dark brown when the ascospores are mature, glabrous or setose; necks cellular, short, conical, with a crown of setae surrounding the ostiole; ascomatal wall membranaceous, of textura angularis. Paraphyses absent. Asci 8-spored, broadly clavate, short-stipitate, without apical structures, evanescent. Ascospores one-celled, at first hyaline, becoming brown to dark brown when mature, fusiform or citriform, umbonate and truncate at the ends, smooth-walled, with one germ pore at each end; germ pores depressed, surrounded by a raised rim. Conidiophores reduced to conidiogenous cells. Conidiogenous cells phialidic, solitary, flask-shaped. Conidia hyaline, subglobose to ovoid, smooth-walled.

Etymology.

From Greek δακτυλίδης–, ring, and from Latin -spora, spore, due to the raised rim that surrounds the germ pores of the ascospores.

Notes.

The most distinctive characteristic of Dactylidispora is the production of smooth-walled ascospores with a germ pore at each end surrounded by a raised rim. Vittatispora , proposed as a new genus by Chaudhary et al. (2006), also produces a raised rim surrounding the germ pores. However, both genera can be easily distinguished by the nature of the ascomatal neck, which is composed of angular cells in Dactylidispora and of parallel arranged hyphae in Vittatispora ; and by the presence of a hyaline ridge running the entire vertical length of the ascospore between the germ pores in Vittatispora . Moreover, in our phylogenetic study (Fig. 2), Vittatispora also constituted a lineage independent from the other members of the Melanosporales . Pustulipora is also morphologically similar to Dactylidispora being characterized by blistered, rarely cushion-like structures surrounding the germ pore ( Cannon 1982). However, unfortunately, Pustulipora could not be included into this phylogenetic study since living cultures were not available.

The presence of a raised rim was also described in Melanospora collipora ( Stchigel et al. 1997), which is here transfered to Dactylidispora even though it was not possible to include this species in the phylogenetic study.