Striatiguttulaceae S.N.Zhang, K.D.Hyde & J.K.Liu, fam. nov.

Zhang, Sheng-Nan, D. Hyde, Kevin, Gareth Jones, E. B., Jeewon, Rajesh, Cheewangkoon, Ratchadawan & Liu, Jian-Kui, 2019, Striatiguttulaceae, a new pleosporalean family to accommodate Longicorpus and Striatiguttula gen. nov. from palms, MycoKeys 49, pp. 99-129 : 106-107

Striatiguttulaceae S.N.Zhang, K.D.Hyde & J.K.Liu, fam. nov.

Etymology.

Name refers to the name of the type genus.

Description.

Saprobic on palms distributed in mangrove habitats. Sexual morph: Stromata black, scattered to gregarious, immersed beneath host epidermis, and erumpent to superficial, with a papilla or a short to long neck, ampulliform, subglobose or conical, uni-loculate or bi-loculate, coriaceous to carbonaceous, ostiolate, periphysate, papillate, clypeate or not clear, glabrous or somewhat interwoven pale brown hyphae or setae. Peridium composed of several brown to hyaline cell layers. Hamathecium of trabeculate pseudoparaphyses. Asci 8-spored, bitunicate, cylindric-clavate, pedicellate. Ascospores hyaline to brown, uniseriate to biseriate or triseriate, fusiform or ellipsoidal, 1-3-septate, striate, guttulate, with paler end cells and surrounded by a mucilaginous sheath. Asexual morph: Undetermined.

Type genus.

Striatiguttula S.N.Zhang, K.D.Hyde & J.K.Liu.

Notes.

The family Striatiguttulaceae is introduced to accommodate two new genera Longicorpus and Striatiguttula , characterized by the immersed, and erumpent to superficial stromata, with a papilla or a short to long neck, trabeculate pseudoparaphyses, bitunicate asci, and hyaline to brown, fusiform to ellipsoidal, striate, guttulate, 1-3-septate ascospores, with paler end cells and surrounded by a mucilaginous sheath. Members of Striatiguttulaceae are morphologically similar to the genera Leptosphaeria and Trematosphaeria , but they are phylogenetically distinct and also differ in ascospores characteristics and the latter two have coriaceous, heavily pigmented thick-walled peridium. Multi-gene phylogenetic analyses revealed a close relationship of Striatiguttulaceae to Ligninsphaeriaceae and Pseudoastrosphaeriellaceae . However, Striatiguttulaceae differs from Pseudoastrosphaeriellaceae as the latter has 1-3-septate or 2-5-septate ascospores, which are narrowly fusiform with acute ends and all cells are concolorous. The slit-like ascomata and broad fusiform, 1-septate, rather large ascospores (79-121 × 14-23 µm) in Ligninsphaeriaceae ( Zhang et al. 2016) are distinct from those found in Striatiguttulaceae . Additionally, a divergence time estimate analysis indicated that the crown age 39 (20-63) MYA and stem age 60 (35-91) MYA of Striatiguttulaceae , match with the recommendations of using divergence times to recognize families in Liu et al. (2017). Attempts were made to culture the asexual morph in order to build comprehensive familial concept for Striatiguttulaceae , but it was not successful. Further morphological investigations together with more molecular data are needed.