Pleosporales » Wicklowiaceae » Wicklowia

Wicklowia aquatica

Wicklowia aquatica Raja, A. Ferrer & Shearer

Index Fungorum number: IF 515226

Etymology: Referring to the broadly obovoid conidia of this fungus.

Holotype: ILL 40790

 

Sexual morph: Ascomata 140–145 × 265–270 μm, subglobose, flattened dorsiventrally, ostiolate, black, immersed to erumpent, solitary to gregarious, appearing as a black oval to circular, shallow, crater-like depression on the substrate. Peridial wall ~25 ×m wide, composed of 4–5 layers of small pseudoparenchymatic cells. Pseudoparaphyses septate, sparse, 2 lm wide, in a gel matrix. Asci 60–95 × 18–26 μm, fissitunicate, in a gel matrix, broadly clavate, rounded at the apex, apical chamber not observed, tapering to a curved stalk, with eight overlapping biseriate to triseriate ascospores. Ascospores 25–30 × 7–9 μm (mean, 25 × 8 μm; n = 25), thin walled, cylindrical, rounded at the apices, slightly flattened on one side, hyaline, oneseptate, slightly constricted at the septum, with two large lipid globules in each cell, surrounded by a gelatinous sheath that expands in water to ~2 μm wide on each side of the ascospore; sheath attached at the base, with a gelatinous curtain extending downward from the base that fragments into filamentous appendages ~3–6 μm long, forming a subapical fringe; sheath and appendages staining blue in aqueous nigrosin. Asexual morph: Undetermined. (Descriptions from Raja et al. 2010)

 

Material examined: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Florida: Apalachicola National Forest, Apalachicola River at Fort Gadsden Landing, 29^°56'00"N, 85^°0'00"W, water temp. 9°C, pH 6, on submerged decorticated woody debris, 14 January 2006, Huzefa A. Raja and J.L. Crane, F76-2 (holotype: ILL 40790 = H.A. Raja and J.L. Crane F76-2). Ex-holotype culture, H.A. Raja F76-2.

 

Freshwater distribution: USA (Raja et al. 2010a)

 

Fig 1. Wicklowia aquatica (Material examined: USA, Florida, Apalachicola National Forest, on submerged decorticated woody debris, 14 January 2006, H.A. Raja & J.L. Crane, F76-2, ILL 40790, holotype; Heredia, La Selva stream, on submerged wood, 9 January 2006, M. Salazar, AF289-4). a–d. ILL 40790. a Ascomata on wood. b Longitudinal section through ascoma. c, d Bitunicate asci. e, f AF289-4. Ascospores showing gelatinous sheath and basal appendages. Scale bars: a = 100 µm, b, e, f = 10 µm, c, d = 20 µm (Dong et al. 2020)

 

References

Dong W, Wang B, Hyde KD, McKenzie EHC, Raja HA, Tanaka K, Abdel-Wahab MA, Abdel-Aziz FA, Doilom M, Phookamsak R, Hongsanan S, Wanasinghe DN, Yu X-D, Wang G-N, Yang H, Yang J, Thambugala KM, Tian Q, Luo Z-L, Yang J-B, Miller AN, Fournier J, Boonmee S, Hu D-M, Nalumpang S, Zhang H (2020) Freshwater Dothideomycetes. Fungal Divers 105:319–575. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13225-020-00463-5

Raja HA, Ferrer A, Shearer CA, Miller AN (2010) Freshwater ascomycetes: Wicklowia aquatica, a new genus and species in the Pleosporales from Florida and Costa Rica. Mycoscience 51:208–214

 

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