Morinagamyces Y. Marín and Stchigel, gen. nov.
MycoBank number: MB 839453; Index Fungorum number: IF 839453; Facesoffungi number: FoF;
Type species: Morinagamyces vermicularis (Morinaga, Minoura and Udagawa) Y. Marín and Stchigel.
Etymology: Named in honor of the mycologist Tsutomu Morinaga, who collected and isolated the ex-type strain and introduced the basionym. Ascomata non-ostiolate, scattered, semi-immersed to immersed, brownish black to black, opaque, globose to subglobose, glabrous or covered on upper exposed part with long, straight or flexuous, brown, septate, unbranched or branched, smooth-walled, hypha-like hairs; ascomatal wall brown to dark brown, membranaceous to coriaceous, three-layered; outer layer of textura intricata; middle layer composed of thin-walled, yellow brown to brown angular cells; inner layer composed of hyaline, flattened cells. Paraphyses filiform to ventricose, hyaline. Asci unitunicate, eight-spored, long cylindrical, often curved or sinuous, disposed in a basal fascicle, rounded apex, apical ring indistinct in the apex, non-amyloid, long-stipitate. Ascospores uniseriate, at first one-celled, hyaline, cylindrical- ellipsoidal, later becoming transversely uniseptate; upper cells dark olivaceous brown to dark brown, ovate to broadly ellipsoidal, truncate at base, rounded or slightly acuminate at apex, with walls ornamented by numerous, stiff warts, with a germ pore in apex; lower cell hyaline to pale brown, cylindrical to long triangular, frequently 1-septate, smooth- walled. Asexual morph of two types: (1) Conidiophores indistinguishable from the hyphae. Conidiogenous cells phialidic, integrated to hyphae, cylindrical, with a terminal collarette. Conidia hyaline, subglobose to ovate, smooth-walled, gathering in a globose, slimy mass; (2) Conidia holoblastic, borne along the sides of hyphae, sessile or short-stipitate, hyaline, pyriform to clavate, truncate at base, rounded apex, smooth-walled.
Notes: – Echinopodospora vermicularis was introduced by Morinaga et al. to accommodate a fungus from soil in Hong Kong characterized by the production of non-ostiolate ascomata and ascospores with a warted upper cell [38]. Subsequently, it was transferred to Apiosordaria, when the genus Echinopodospora was synonymized with Apiosordaria based on their morphological similarities [39]. However, the phylogenetic data demonstrated that this species represents a new lineage in the recently introduced family Schizotheciaceae, and consequently the genus Morinagamyces was introduced. The main distinctive feature of this new genus is the presence of two different kinds of asexual morphs, i.e., cladorrhinum- and chrysosporium-like. This particular feature has only been reported in another species of the Sordariales, A. effusa [38], which has never been studied with molecular data, and its taxonomic position remains unresolved. Surprisingly, the cladorrhinum-like asexual morph is distinctive of the three genera belonging to the family Podosporaceae, i.e., Cladorrhinum, Podospora, and Triangularia, as it is not observed in any other families of the Sordariales.
The closest related genera to Morinagamyces are Echria and Rinaldiella. However, the later genera have not been reported to produce asexual morphs and they are characterized by the production of ostiolate ascomata, while Morynagamyces produces non-ostiolate ones. Echria can be easily distinguished from the other two genera by production of one- celled roughened or smooth-walled ascospores (two-celled and warted in the other two genera) [19]. Morinagamyces and Rinaldiella produce two-celled warted ascospores, but the upper cell is five-angled in side view in Rinaldiella [27], while it is ovate to broadly ellipsoidal in Morinagamyces.
Species