Two unusual new species of Pleosporales: Anteaglonium rubescens and Atrocalyx asturiensis.

Two new species of Pleosporales, Anteaglonium rubescens (Anteagloniaceae) and Atrocalyx asturiensis (Lophiotremataceae), are described. Phylogenetic placement was determined by combined analyses of a DNA data matrix containing ITS, LSU, SSU, rpb2, and tef1. Anteaglonium rubescens is a stromatic fungus characterized by brown didymospores disarticulating within asci, and by the production of a red-orange to pink pigment produced in nature and in artificial culture. Atrocalyx asturiensis has massive ascomatal crests and brown phragmospores.

Stigmatodiscus pruni, a new dothideomycete with hysteriform ascomata.

Stigmatodiscus pruni (Stigmatodiscaceae, Stigmatodiscales) is described and illustrated from corticated dead twigs of Prunus spinosa collected in Austria and France. It is characterised by hysteriform ascomata with two lateral black lips, which are erumpent through the periderm of the host, and a black disc in combination with two-celled, asymmetric brown verruculose ascospores with a distinct sheath. Phylogenetic analyses of a multigene matrix containing a representative selection of Dothideomycetes from four genes (nuc 18S rDNA, nuc 28S rDNA, rpb2 and tef1) revealed a highly supported placement within Stigmatodiscales as sister species to Stigmatodiscus enigmaticus. Micromorphology of the sexual and asexual morph matches the genus Stigmatodiscus, except for the hysteriform shape of the ascomata and the two-celled ascospores.

Three former taxa of Cucurbitaria and considerations on Petrakia in the Melanommataceae.

Based on phylogenetic analyses of an ITS-LSU-SSU-rpb2-tef1 sequence data matrix three taxa once classified in Cucurbitaria are referred to the Melanommataceae. Cucurbitaria rhododendri, also known as Melanomma rhododendri, is not congeneric with the generic type of Melanomma, M. pulvis-pyrius and thus classified in the new genus Alpinaria. Cucurbitaria piceae, known as Gemmamyces piceae, the cause of the Gemmamyces bud blight of Picea spp., belongs also to the Melanommataceae. The name Gemmamyces is conserved. For Cucurbitaria obducens, also known as Teichospora obducens, the new genus Praetumpfia is described, as it cannot be accommodated in any known genus. All species are redescribed and epitypified. Based on sequence data and morphology, Blastostroma, Mycodidymella and Xenostigmina are synonyms of Petrakia. The genus Petrakia is emended. We also provide sequences of additional markers for Beverwykella pulmonaria, Melanomma pulvis-pyrius, Petrakia echinata and Pseudotrichia mutabilis.

Asterodiscus and Stigmatodiscus, two new apothecial dothideomycete genera and the new order Stigmatodiscales.

During a survey on corticolous Dothideomycetes, several collections with ascospores matching the genera Asteromassaria and Stigmatomassaria (Pleomassariaceae, Pleosporales) were revealed from dead corticated twigs of Acer, Carpinus and Tamarix. Closer morphological examination showed that their ascomata were apothecial, with a hamathecium consisting of septate, branched paraphyses, which are apically swollen at maturity. Several collections were cultured and sequenced, and a Blast search of their nuc 28S rDNA sequences revealed dothideomycetous affiliation, but without a close match to a specific family or order. Phylogenetic analyses of a multigene matrix containing a representative selection of Dothideomycetes from four genes (nuc 18S rDNA, nuc 28S rDNA, rpb2 and tef1) revealed placement within Dothideomycetes but without a supported familial or ordinal affiliation. Based on the phylogenetic analyses and morphological investigations, the new genera Asterodiscus and Stigmatodiscus, with the two new species A. tamaricis and S. enigmaticus, are described and illustrated, and placed in the new family Stigmatodiscaceae and new order Stigmatodiscales.

Two new species of Thyronectria from Mediterranean Europe.

Two new species of Thyronectria growing in Mediterranean vegetation are described from southern Spain; they are T. giennensis from Quercus ilex ssp. rotundifolia and T. pistaciae from Pistacia lentiscus. Both species are characterized by morphology of sexual and asexual morphs and by DNA data. They have olivaceous to green-brown muriform ascospores and are closely related to T. asturiensis and T. roseovirens, as determined by multigene phylogenetic analyses of a matrix containing six loci (ITS and 28S regions of nuc rDNA, ACT1, RPB1, RPB2, TEF1 and TUB2 genes). We also report that Cucurbitaria bicolor is a synonym of Thyronectria rhodochlora, the type species of Thyronectria.

Taxonomic position of the genus Bicornispora and the appearance of a new species Bicornispora seditiosa.

The discovery of a second species of Bicornispora in Spain, B. seditiosa, which is closely related to B. exophiala but has smaller ascospores, narrower asci and different ecology, gave us the opportunity to culture and sequence the fungus. Phylogenetic analyses of rDNA regions including partial nuc 28S rDNA (28S) and ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 (ITS) supported a close relationship with species of the genus Lambertella (Rutstroemiaceae), placing Bicornispora, previously ascribed to Coryneliales, within Helotiales. This result confirmed an evolutionary linkage between certain inoperculate discomycetes such as Lambertella palmeri and derived cleistothecial forms (Bicornispora spp.). Based on analyses of morphological study and molecular phylogenetic analyses, a new combination Rutstroemia asphodeli is proposed for Ciboria asphodeli.

The rise and fall of Sarawakus (Hypocreaceae, Ascomycota).

Species of Sarawakus are rarely encountered. Their teleomorphs resemble sexual stages of Trichoderma, formerly called Hypocrea, but differ from that genus by unicellular ascospores. The two green-spored species S. britannicus and the type species of Sarawakus, S. lycogaloides, recently were collected, compared with their types and cultured. We redescribe and illustrate these species and transfer them to Trichoderma, based on phylogenetic analysis of the translation elongation factor 1-alpha encoding gene (tef1), containing the two last introns and exon, and a part of the rpb2 gene, encoding the second largest RNA polymerase subunit. Trichoderma lycogaloides, was found to cluster with Hypocrea sulawesensis, an unusual species of Trichoderma, while T. britannicum is closely related to T. aerugineum of the Spinulosa clade. The anamorphs of the two examined species are characterized by (odd) verticillium-like conidiophores, large cylindrical phialides and conidia, which belong to the largest of those species forming green conidia, oval to subglobose in T. lycogaloides and oblong in T. britannicum. All species currently recognized in Sarawakus are transferred to Trichoderma, introducing the new combinations T. fragile, T. hexasporum, T. izawae, T. sordidum, T. subtrachycarpum, T. succisum and T. trachycarpum and the new name T. rosellum. Trichoderma trachycarpum is redescribed and illustrated from an isotype.

Front line defenders of the ecological niche! Screening the structural diversity of peptaibiotics from saprotrophic and fungicolous Trichoderma/Hypocrea species.

Approximately 950 individual sequences of non-ribosomally biosynthesised peptides are produced by the genus Trichoderma/Hypocrea that belong to a perpetually growing class of mostly linear antibiotic oligopeptides, which are rich in the non-proteinogenic α-aminoisobutyric acid (Aib). Thus, they are comprehensively named peptaibiotics. Notably, peptaibiotics represent ca. 80 % of the total inventory of secondary metabolites currently known from Trichoderma/Hypocrea. Their unique membrane-modifying bioactivity results from amphipathicity and helicity, thus making them ideal candidates in assisting both colonisation and defence of the natural habitats by their fungal producers. Despite this, reports on the in vivo-detection of peptaibiotics have scarcely been published in the past. In order to evaluate the significance of peptaibiotic production for a broader range of potential producers, we screened nine specimens belonging to seven hitherto uninvestigated fungicolous or saprotrophic Trichoderma/Hypocrea species by liquid chromatography coupled to electrospray high resolution mass spectrometry. Sequences of peptaibiotics found were independently confirmed by analysing the peptaibiome of pure agar cultures obtained by single-ascospore isolation from the specimens. Of the nine species examined, five were screened positive for peptaibiotics. A total of 78 peptaibiotics were sequenced, 56 (=72 %) of which are new. Notably, dihydroxyphenylalaninol and O-prenylated tyrosinol, two C-terminal residues, which have not been reported for peptaibiotics before, were found as well as new and recurrent sequences carrying the recently described tyrosinol residue at their C-terminus. The majority of peptaibiotics sequenced are 18- or 19-residue peptaibols. Structural homologies with 'classical representatives' of subfamily 1 (SF1)-peptaibiotics argue for the formation of transmembrane ion channels, which are prone to facilitate the producer capture and defence of its substratum.

Molecular systematics of Woswasia atropurpurea gen. et sp. nov. (Sordariomycetidae), a fungicolous ascomycete with globose ascospores and holoblastic conidiogenesis.

The monotypic genus Woswasia is described for wood-inhabiting and mycotrophic fungi classified in the Sordariomycetidae. It is characterized by unicellular, hyaline, globose to ellipsoid, verruculose ascospores; unitunicate long-stipitate asci with an apical annulus staining blue in aqueous cotton blue and perithecia with a long neck immersed in a stroma exhibiting a conspicuous pH-dependent color reaction. In vitro, it produces branched subhyaline to hyaline conidiophores with terminally arranged sympodial conidiogenous cells and holoblastic hyaline conidia. The remarkable morphological similarity of Woswasia to Amplistroma of the Amplistromataceae, although suggestive of a close relationship, was not confirmed by molecular data. Phylogenetic analysis based on two functional ribosomal genes (large and small subunits of the nuclear rDNA) and one protein-coding gene (second largest subunit of RNA polymerase II) supports the placement of Woswasia in the Sordariomycetidae incertae sedis. Woswasia atropurpurea, the type and only species of the genus, groups within a large heterogeneous clade containing other small or monotypic genera of wood-inhabiting saprobic fungi, which are distantly related and of which the majority lacks an ordinal or familial affiliation. Within the clade a relationship of Woswasia to the freshwater genus Cyanoannulus is suggested.

New combinations in Trichoderma (Hypocreaceae, Hypocreales).

Unitary nomenclature demands the use of a single name for pleomorphic fungi determined according to priority. For this reason combinations in Trichoderma are here provided for 46 species for which such a combination is lacking. Although many more such species are known, only those are included here that are dealt with in more recent papers and where some DNA data are available in GenBank, even if erroneous; for other species it is strongly recommended to consult databases like Index Fungorum or MycoBank. Information on types is provided for most species, and representative cultures, GenBank accessions for tef1 and rpb2, and important references are given for all species.