Asterotexaceae Firmino, O.L. Pereira & Crous [as ‘Asterotexiaceae’], in Guatimosim et al., Persoonia 35: 238 (2015).
MycoBank number: MB 548079; Index Fungorum number: IF 548079; Facesoffungi number: FoF 07607, 2 species.
Epiphytes, phytopathogens, forming dark colonies irregular to star-shaped, solitary to confluent. External mycelium growing through ascomatal cavity or fusing with the host epidermis cells, septate, hyaline, smooth. Appressoria formed underneath the ascomata, solitary or forming in small clusters, globose, cone-shaped or ovoid to elongate, brown, with a central hyaline penetration peg. Sexual morph: Ascomata superficial to erumpent, scutellate, dimidiate, brown to black. Scutellum of radially arranged rows of cells, poorly developed base, opening by numerous irregular fissures. Hamathecium comprising septate, anastomosing, cellular pseudoparaphyses, embedded in a gelatinous matrix. Asci 8-spored, bitunicate, fissitunicate, oblong to cylindrical, with short and rounded pedicel or pedicel sometimes absent. Ascospores overlapping 2–3-seriate, ellipsoidal, hyaline to slightly yellowish, 1-septate, slightly constricted at the septum, upper cell broader than lower cell (adapted from Hongsanan et al. 2014b; Guatimosim et al. 2015). Asexual morph: Undetermined.
Type: Asterotexis Arx.
Notes: Asterotexaceae was established by Guatimosim et al. (2015), with the generic type Asterotexis. A phylogenetic tree provided by Guatimosim et al. (2015) showed that species of Asterotexis formed a distinct clade sister to the Inocyclus angularis (Incertae sedis clade). They introduced Asterotexiales to accommodate Asterotexaceae (Guatimosim et al. 2015). Ertz et al. (2016) indicated that the Asterotexiales clade contains Asterotexis species, Inocyclus angularia (Parmulariaceae) and some Asterinales species. However, the Asterotexiales clade in Ertz et al. (2016) was treated as Asterinaceae sensu stricto (Hyde et al. 2016b). Asterotexales was synonymized under Asterinales by Liu et al. (2017). In our phylogenetic analyses (Fig. 5), Asterotexis species cluster with the clade of Asterina species as an unstable clade. In another analysis, which did not include Lembosia mimusopis (data not shown), Asterotexis clustered with Inocyclus angularis (Incertae sedis clade). Thus, we retain Asterotexaceae within Asterinales and note that more sequence data are needed to clarify its phylogenetic placement.
Fig. 5 Phylogram generated from maximum likelihood analysis (RAxML) of Asterinales based on LSU sequence data. Maximum likelihood bootstrap values equal to or greater than 70%, Bayesian posterior probabilities equal to or greater than 0.90 (MLBS/PP) are given at the nodes. Isolate numbers are noted after each species name. The tree is rooted to Venturia inaequalis (ATCC 60070) and Venturia populina (CBS 256.38). Newly sequence data generated in this study are in blue. Ex-types are indicated in bold. Hyphen (-) represents sup- port values less than 70% MLBS and 0.90 PP
Types