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The widely treated order Capnodiales is one of the most important orders in the class Dothideomycetes. Recently, the order Capnodiales s. lat. was reassessed and split into seven orders (Capnodiales s. str., Cladosporiales, Comminutisporales, Mycosphaerellales, Neophaeothecales, Phaeothecales and Racodiales) based on multi-locus phylogeny, morphology and life strategies. In this study, two Arthrocatena strains isolated from sooty mould communities on the leaves of Tilia cordata and needles of Pinus nigra in southern Poland were analyzed. Multi-locus phylogenetic analyses (ITS-LSU-SSU-rpb2-tef1) along with morphological examination showed that they belong to Capnobotryella antalyensis, which represents a sister taxon to Arthrocatena tenebrosa. Capnobotryella antalyensis is a rock-inhabiting fungus described from Turkey. The following new combination is proposed: Arthrocatena antalyensis. Phylogenetic analyses also showed that Arthrocatena and related genus Hyphoconis, both known previously only from rocks, form a sister lineage to orders Cladosporiales and Comminutisporales. The new order Arthrocatenales and new family Arthrocatenaceae are proposed to this clade. Representatives of this order are extremophilic fungi that live on rocks and in sooty mould communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fungal genus Rachicladosporium (Cladosporiales, Cladosporiaceae), typified by cladosporium-like Rachicladosporium luculiae, includes a morphologically diverse assemblage of species. The species of this genus were reported from different substrates, habitats and environments, including plant leaves and needles, twig, black mould on baobab trees, rocks and insects. In this study, four new Rachicladosporium species (R. europaeum, R. ignacyi, R. kajetanii, R. silesianum) isolated from sooty mould communities covering leaves and needles of trees and shrubs in Poland are described. The new species are delineated based on morphological characteristics and molecular phylogenetic analyses using concatenated ITS, LSU, and rpb2 sequences. All newly described species are nested in the main Rachicladosporium lineage (centred around the type species), which contains species that are able to grow at 25 °C. By contrast, four cold adapted, endolithic species known from Antarctica (R. antarcticum, R. aridum, R. mcmurdoi) and Italian Alps (R. monterosanum) form distant phylogenetic lineage and do not grow at this temperature. Therefore, they are accommodated in the new genus Cryoendolithus, typified by Cryoendolithus mcmurdoi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A new fossil species, Szaferomyces pliocenicus , resembling modern Erysiphaceae. • Review of problematic record of the Erysiphaceae-like fossils. • Szaferomyces as the most credible powdery mildews fossil. A fungal chasmothecium-like structure resembling those of the contemporary members of the Erysiphaceae was found during palynological investigations of Upper Pliocene deposits from Mizerna (borehole Mizerna-Nowa), southern Poland. This chasmothecium-like remain, preserved without any asci, ascospores and mycelium attached, is morphologically most similar to the chasmothecia of modern powdery mildews from the genera Erysiphe , Neoerysiphe , Podosphaera , and Salmonomyces. It differs from hitherto described fossil or modern fungi producing globose, closed ascomata with appendage-like setae. Therefore, a new fossil-genus and species name, Szaferomyces pliocenicus , is introduced for the fossil remains from Mizerna. Contrary to all previous putative fossils of powdery mildews, Szaferomyces pliocenicus nov. gen., nov. sp. is the most probable fossil of spore-producing organs of the Erysiphaceae found so far. However, due to the absence of some diagnostic morphological structures (other than presumptive chasmothecium) and DNA data, the affinity of this fungal fossil remains unclear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The chrysophyte genus Dinobryon Ehrenberg consists of 44 taxa, which occur in freshwaters, rarely marine waters, mostly in temperate regions of the world. The taxa of Dinobryon produce characteristic solitary or dendroid colonies and resting stages called stomatocysts. Only 20 Dinobryon taxa have information on produced stomatocysts and only four stomatocysts are reliably linked with vegetative stages using modern identification standards employing scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analyses. In this study, an encysted material of Dinobryon pediforme (Lemmermann) Steinecke was collected in two lakes in contrasting regions of Poland. Light microscopy (LM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analyses revealed that Dinobryon pediforme produces stomatocyst #61, Piątek J. that is described here as new morphotype following the International Statospore Working Group (ISWG) guidelines. This raises to five the number of reliable links between vegetative stages of Dinobryon species and corresponding stomatocysts. Phenotypic similarities between Dinobryon species and their stomatocysts, analysed for five reliably established links, showed no relationships in size and shape between loricas and stomatocysts belonging to the same species. The morphological characters of loricas and stomatocysts mapped onto the phylogenetic tree of the five Dinobryon species revealed only little congruence between their morphology and phylogenetic relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined three arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF; phylum Glomeromycota) producing glomoid spores. The mode of formation and morphology of these spores suggested that they represent undescribed species in the genus Rhizoglomus of the family Glomeraceae. Subsequent morphological studies of the spores and molecular phylogenetic analyses of sequences of the nuc rDNA small subunit (18S), internal transcribed spacer (ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 = ITS), and large subunit (28S) region (= 18S-ITS-28S) confirmed the suggestion and indicated that the fungi strongly differ from all previously described Rhizoglomus species with known DNA barcodes. Consequently, the fungi were described here as new species: R. dalpeae, R. maiae, and R. silesianum. Two of these species lived hypogeously in the field in habitats subjected to strong environmental stresses. Rhizoglomus dalpeae originated from an inselberg located within Guineo-Sudanian transition savanna zone in Benin, West Africa, where the temperature of the inselberg rock during a 5-mo drought ranges from 40 to 60 C. Rhizoglomus silesianum originated from a coal mine spoil heap in Poland, whose substrate is extremely poor in nutrients, has unfavorable texture, and may heat up to 50 C. By contrast, R. maiae was found in more favorable habitat conditions. It produced an epigeous cluster of spores among shrubs growing in a tropical humid reserve in Brazil. Moreover, the compatibility of phylogenies of species of the family Glomeraceae reconstructed from analyses of sequences of 18S-ITS-28S and the largest subunit of RNA polymerase II (RPB1) gene was discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new coprinoid fungus, Coprinopsis rugosomagnispora, is described from Poland (Central Europe). Its macromorphological characters are similar to species belonging to the subsection Nivei of Coprinus s.l. However, C. rugosomagnispora has unique micromorphological characters: very large, ornamented spores, voluminous basidia and cystidia, and smooth veil elements. The large spores and pattern of spore ornamentation (densely pitted) make this species unique within all coprinoid species described so far. The structure (arrangement and shape) of veil elements in C. rugosomagnispora is intermediate between members of the subsections Nivei and Lanatuli of Coprinus s.l. Molecular phylogenetic analyses, based on single-locus (ITS) maximum likelihood and Bayesian evolutionary trees recovered C. rugosomagnispora within a lineage containing species having morphological characters of the subsection Lanatuli (though within the so-called Atramentarii clade) that contradicts its morphological similarity to members of the subsection Nivei. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A clade where the most halotolerant fungus in the world – Hortaea werneckii, belongs (hereafter referred to as Hortaea werneckii lineage) includes five species: Hortaea werneckii , H. thailandica, Stenella araguata , Eupenidiella venezuelensis , and Magnuscella marina , of which the first species attracts increasing attention of mycologists. The species diversity and phylogenetic relationships within this lineage are weakly known. In this study two moderately halophilic black yeast strains were isolated from brine of graduation tower in Poland. Molecular phylogenetic analyses based on the rDNA ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 (=ITS), rDNA 28S D1–D2 (=LSU), and RNA polymerase II (rpb2) sequences showed that the two strains belong to Hortaea werneckii lineage but cannot be assigned to any described taxa. Accordingly, a new genus and species, Salinomyces and Salinomyces polonicus , are described for this fungus. Furthermore, molecular phylogenetic analyses have revealed that Hortaea thailandica is more closely related to S. polonicus than to H. werneckii. A new combination Salinomyces thailandicus is proposed for this fungus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]