Paradictyocheirospora Rajeshk., R. K. Verma, Boonmee, K. D. Hyde, Chandrasiri & Wijayaw
Index Fungorum number: IF 558297, MycoBank number: MB 558297, Facesoffungi number: FoF 09733
Note – The monotypic genus Paradictyocheirospora was recently erected by Rajeshkumar et al. (2021) with P. tectonae as the type which was found associated with the bark of Tectona grandis from India. Multi-gene phylogenetic analysis of ITS, LSU and tef1-α sequence data showed that Paradictyocheirospora tectonae formed a distinct lineage basal to Dictyocheirospora and Digitodesmium. Paradictyocheirospora is morphologically similar to Dictyocheirospora in having cheiroid, digitate, with or without complanate conidia (Boonmee et al. 2016, Rajeshkumar et al. 2021). However, Paradictyocheirospora tectonae can be distinguished from Dictyocheirospora in having sporodochial conidiomata with micronematous conidiophores, 3–6 compactly arranged rows of light to dark pigmented cells with non-complanate conidia with globose, bubble-like, hyaline appendages at the base (Boonmee et al. 2016; Hyde et al. 2020). Digitodesmium differs from Paradictyocheirospora tectonae in having punctiform, sporodochial conidiomata and acrogenous, euseptate, cheiroid, digitate conidia with an apical gelatinous cap (Kirk 1981; Boonmee et al. 2016; Hyde et al. 2020). Therefore, a new genus, Paradictyocheirospora was introduced to accommodate P. tectonae based on morphological characters and phylogenetic analysis. However, Rajeshkumar et al. (2021) did not include all the species of Digitodesmium in their phylogenetic analyses. Shen et al. (2022) showed that Digitodesmium is polyphyletic and formed two distinct clades within Dictyosporiaceae, where Paradictyocheirospora tectonae clustered with Digitodesmium chiangmaiense and D. polybrachiatum in a monophyletic clade. The members within these clades were reported as saprobic on dead wood submerged in a stream or from terrestrial habitats (Hyde et al. 2019). Thus, Paradictyocheirospora needs further revision as to whether it should be placed under Digitodesmium or not. However, there are also problems with the classification of Digitodesmium, as the type species, D. elegans lacks sequence data in the GenBank and the genus is polyphyletic within the Dictyosporiaceae. Therefore, further analysis is required to solve this taxonomic problem.
Species