Morphological and Phylogenetic Appraisal of Novel and Extant Taxa of Stictidaceae from Northern Thailand

Stictidaceae comprises taxa with diverse lifestyles. Many species in this family are drought resistant and important for studying fungal adaptation and evolution. Stictidaceae comprises 32 genera, but many of them have been neglected for decades due to the lack of field collections and molecular data. In this study, we introduce a new species Fitzroyomyces hyaloseptisporus and a new combination Fitzroyomycespandanicola. We also provide additional morphological and molecular data for Ostropomyces pruinosellus and O. thailandicus based on new collections isolated from an unidentified woody dicotyledonous host in Chiang Rai, Thailand. Taxonomic conclusions are made with the aid of morphological evidence and phylogenetic analysis of combined LSU, ITS and mtSSU sequence data. Characteristics such as the shape and septation of ascospores and conidia as well as lifestyles among genera of Stictidaceae are discussed.

Sequencing of the type species of Arthopyrenia places Arthopyreniaceae as a synonym of Trypetheliaceae

Arthopyrenia sensu lato comprises lichenicolous, lichenized and non-lichenized saprotrophic species; however, the lifestyle of several taxa as either lichenized or saprotrophic remains unclear. The systematic position of the genus was so far unresolved: while sequenced species appeared in different clades within Dothideomycetes, the type species, A. cerasi, had no molecular data so far. In lieu of sequence data, the family Arthopyreniaceae was assigned to Pleosporales, whereas tropical, lichenized species were reclassified in Constrictolumina and Macroconstrictolumina, shown to belong in Trypetheliaceae (Trypetheliales). In this study, the generic type, A. cerasi, has been sequenced for the first time. Maximum likelihood and Bayesian phylogenetic analyses using mtSSU and nuLSU sequences recovered Arthopyrenia sensu stricto as an early diverging lineage within Trypetheliaceae, separate from Constrictolumina and Macroconstrictolumina but in the same clade as the temperate, non-lichenized Julella fallaciosa. Therefore, Arthopyreniaceae is here synonymized under Trypetheliaceae and the taxonomic placement of its type species is discussed based on morphological and phylogenetic evidence. Our phylogenetic results further support the polyphyly of non-lichenized, temperate species of Arthopyrenia and Julella sensu lato. Consequently, Julella fallaciosa is transferred to Arthopyrenia and its close relationship with A. cerasi is discussed. We also conducted ancestor character state analysis to reconstruct lifestyle changes within Trypetheliales using Bayes Traits and Bayesian Binary MCMC approaches.

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