Comatospora
Comatospora Piroz. & Shoemaker, Can. J. Bot. 49: 539 (1971)
Ascomycota, genera incertae sedis
Saprobic on the host plant in terrestrial habitat. Sexual morph: undetermined. Asexual morph: Conidiomata black, pycnidial, scattered, subcuticular in origin, then becoming erumpent, hemispherical, unilocular, glabrous, ostiolate. Conidiomatal wall composed of thick-walled, brown to hyaline cells of textura angularis. Ostiole circular, single, papillate, centrally located. Conidiophores reduced to conidiogenous cells. Conidiogenous cells arising all around the cavity of conidiomata, hyaline, annellidic, discrete, cylindrical, clavate or ampulliform, smooth-walled, percurrently developing to produce new crops of conidia at higher levels, with marked periclinal thickenings and flared collarettes. Conidia ellipsoid to ovoid, 1-euseptate, hyaline, smooth-walled, bearing up to 8, filiform, flexuous, unbranched, apical, extracellular appendages, arising by differential gelatinization of a conidium sheath.
Type species: Comatospora suttonii Piroz. & Shoemaker, Can. J. Bot. 49: 539 (1971)
Notes: Comatospora can be confused with Crinitospora, as these two genera have annellidic conidiogenous cells and 1-septate conidia bearing apical appendages. Comatospora differs from Crinitospora by its pycnidial conidiomata and conidia appendage type. The conidial appendages of Comatospora are extracellular, originating by structural changes in parts of the conidium sheath, whereas it is cellular, attenuated or filiform, simple or branched, nucleate or enucleate, originating from the upper part of conidium body in Crinitospora (Nag Raj 1993). Comatospora is monotypic and no sexual morph has been linked to it. The fungus was initially described from twigs and leaf scars of withered branches of Picea mariana in Canada (Pirozynski and Shoemaker 1971). Because of lack of molecular data, the placement of this genus is undetermined.
Distribution: Canada.
Li WJ, McKenZie EHC, Liu JK, Bhat DJ, Dai DQ, Caporesi E, Tian Q, Maharachcikumbura SSN, Luo ZL, Shang QJ, Zhang JF, Tangthirasunun N, Karunarathna SC, Xu JC, Hyde KD (2020) Taxonomy and phylogeny of hyaline-spored coelomycetes. Fungal Diversity 100: pages279–801.
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