Homortomycetales Maharachch. & Wanas., ordo novus
MycoBank number: MB 837547; Index Fungorum number: IF 837547; Facesoffungi number: FoF 09480;
Foliicolous, associated with leaf spots or saprobic on dead twigs or branches in terrestrial habitats. Sexual morph: Ascomata scattered, immersed to erumpent, ostiolate. Ostiole central, apapillate to papillate, filled with hya- line to brown cells. Peridium comprising angularis cells.
Hamathecium with septate, cellular pseudoparaphyses. Asci 2–8-spored, bitunicate, fissitunicate, clavate to cylindrical clavate. Ascospores uni- to bi-seriate, fusiform, septate. Asexual morph: Coelomycetous. Conidiomata pycnidial, immersed or erumpent, uni- to multi-loculate, ostiolate. Conidiomatal wall comprising cells of textura angularis. Paraphyses hyaline, flexuous, sparingly septate. Conidiophores reduced to conidiogenous cells or with one supporting cell. Conidiogenous cell with a supporting cell, hyaline, percurrent, proliferate. Conidia ellipsoid to subcylindrical, 3(− 4)-euseptate.
Type family: Homortomycetaceae Thambugala, A.J.L. Phillips & K.D. Hyde
Type species: Homortomyces combreti Crous & M.J. Wingf. IMA Fungus 3(2): 113 (2012)
Notes—The family Homortomycetaceae was introduced by Thambugala et al. (2017) as a monotypic family and currently includes two species, the generic type Homortomyces combreti Crous & M.J. Wingf. and H. tamaricis Wijayaw. et al. The LSU sequence analysis of Thambugala et al. (2017) showed that the closest relative to Homortomyceta- ceae is Botryosphaeriales. Although Homortomycetaceae shares feature such as stromatic conidiomata, septate, pigmented, thick-walled and diplodia-like conidia, and asci with a thick endotunicate and a well-developed apical chamber with Botryosphaeriales, it is clearly distinct from the latter in having uniloculate, thin-walled ascomata and 3-septate, pigmented ascospores and distoseptate conidia (Crous et al. 2012; Phillips et al. 2013; Thambugala et al. 2017). Based on morphology and phylogenetic placement, Thambugala et al. (2017) tentatively referred to Homortomycetaceae as an incertae sedis family in Dothideomycetes. Phylogenetic analyses of combined genes in the present study indicate that Holmiellales is closely related to the Homortomycetaceae and Catinellales (see notes under Holmiellales). The order Catinellales was erected by Hongsanan et al. (2020b) for the genus Catinella Boud. which was previously placed within Leotiomycetes. The order Catinellales is characterised by apothecial, discoid ascomata, excipulum composed of angularis to globose cells and cylindric, septate, paraphyses clearly distinguish it from Holmiellales and Homortomycetales. Due to phylogenetic distinction and the strong phenotypic differentiation between Homortomyces Crous & M.J. Wingf., Catinella, Holmiella and Botryosphaeriales, the separation into four orders seems straightforward. Future studies including more taxon sampling will shed additional light on the classification of Botryosphaeriales, Catinellales, Homortomycetales and Holmiellales. The order Homortomycetales has a stem age at 97 million of years (Supplementary Fig. 1).
Families