Podila Stajich, Vandepol & Bonito, gen. nov.
Index Fungorum number: MB 833766; Facesoffungi number: FoF
Etymology: In honor of Gopi Podila (1957–2010), an Indian American biologist who advanced the fields of plant–microbe interactions, plant genetics and biotechnol- ogy in bioenergy crops. In particular, Podila researched the genetic basis of the poplar microbiome and metabolome.
Description: All species produce sporangiospores, though with variable morphologies: globose to fusoid, smooth to spinulose or verrucose. Chlamydospores are absent in some species and scarce or unknown in the others. When known, zygospore morphology ranges from naked to smooth and globose and mating is usually heterothallic, though at least one species is homothallic.
Habitat: Species of Podila are frequently isolated from for- est and agricultural soil, compost, dung, and municipal waste
P. minutissima has been isolated from Populus roots (Bonito et al. 2016). They have been reported from Europe, New Zealand, and North America. P. minutissima is a semi-sapro- trophic mycophile (saprotrophically consumes dead fungal tis- sue) it is possible that additional species in this genus are also mycophilic/mycoparasitic to some degree (Rudakov, 1978).
Type species: Podila minutissima (Tiegh.) Vandepol & Bonito
Species