Neophaeocryptopus Wanasinghe, Camporesi, E.B.G. Jones & K.D. Hyde, gen. nov.
Index Fungorum number: IF 551785, Facesoffungi number: FoF 01669
Etymology: Named after its morphological similarity to the genus Phaeocryptopus.
Type species: Neophaeocryptopus cytisi Wanasinghe, Camporesi, E.B.G. Jones & K.D. Hyde

Saprobic on stems and twigs of herbaceous and woody plants in terrestrial habitats. Sexual morph Ascostromata superficial, semi-immersed to erumpent, solitary, scattered, broadly oblong, dark brown to black, coriaceous, uniloculate. Peridium comprising 5 – 8 layers, outer part comprising heavily pigmented, thick-walled, angular cells. Hamathecium lacking pseudoparaphyses. Asci 8 – spored, bitunicate, fissitunicate, clavate to broadly-clavate, short pedicellate, thickened and rounded at apex, with an ocular chamber. Ascospores overlapping 1 – 2 – seriate, hyaline, broadly fusiform, rounded at both ends, 1 – septate, with a median septum, constricted at the septum, smooth-walled, lacking a mucilaginous sheath. Asexual morph Conidiomata stromatic, immersed in agar to superficial, uni- to multi-loculate, globose to subglobose, glabrous, ostiole central, with minute papilla. Conidiomata walls composed of several layers of hyaline to dark brown, pseudoparenchymatous cells, organized in a textura angularis. Conidiophores arising from basal cavity of conidiomata, mostly reduced to conidiogenous cells. Conidiogenous cells holoblastic, phialidic, discrete, ampulliform to cylindric-clavate, hyaline, aseptate, smooth – walled. Conidia solitary, one-celled, fusiform to falcate, with narrowed ends, initially hyaline, becoming pale brown at maturity, aseptate, smooth and thin-walled, guttulate, contents granular.

Notes: Phylogenetic analyses of LSU, SSU and ITS sequence data indicate that Neophaeocryptopus is a distinct genus in Dothideaceae, which forms a clade sister to the Coleophoma, Cylindroseptoria and Dothiora clades. Neophaeocryptopus, however differs from these genera, having uni-loculate ascostromata, while Coleophoma, Cylindroseptoria and Dothiora having multi – loculate ascostromata. Neophaeocryptopus is morphologically most closely related to Phaeocryptopus which has uniloculate ascostromata, cylindrical, clavate asci and partially overlapping, hyaline, 1 – septate ascospores, with rounded ends (Thambugala et al. 2014c). However, this is not supported by sequence data, as Neophaeocryptopus forms a remote clade from Phaeocryptopus (Fig. 1). Nevertheless, we could not include the type species Phaeocryptopus abietis Naumov sequences in the phylogenetic analysis, since they are not available. The type of Phaeocryptopus needs to be recollected and sequenced in order to resolve the conformity of Neophaeocryptopus with Phaeocryptopus in Dothideaceae.

Fig. 1 Phylogram generated from maximum likelihood analysis based on analysis of combined LSU, SSU and ITS sequence data of species of Dothideales. Maximum likelihood bootstrap support values greater than 50 % and Bayesian posterior probabilities greater than 0.90 are near the nodes. The ex-type strains are in bold and the new isolates are in blue. The scale bar indicates 0.03 changes. The tree is rooted with Elsinoe veneta and Elsinoe phaseoli.

Species