Etheirophoraceae


Etheirophoraceae is a family of ascomycetous marine based fungi within the order of Torpedosporales in the subclass Hypocreomycetidae and within the class Sordariomycetes. They are saprobic on intertidal wood and bark within marine habitats.

Genera

It contains the following genera ;
Note former species;
In 1987, Kohlmeyer & Volkmann-Kohlmeyer established the genus Swampomyces to accommodate Swampomyces armeniacus that is characterized by clypeate ascomata, apricot centrum, cylindrical asci and one-septate ascospores that are hyaline to yellowish, appearing light apricot-colored in mass. Another species, Swampomyces triseptatus, was described from mangroves in Australia. Then in 2001, Abdel-Wahab et al. described two new species of Swampomyces from Red Sea mangroves in Egypt, S. aegyptiacus and S. clavatisporus.
In 2007, Schoch et al. suggested that S. aegyptiacus and S. clavatisporus possibly belonged to a different genus Fulvocentrum. Schoch also agreed that Swampomyces and Etheirophora were in the same clade. This was agreed in further studies. Genus Etheirophora had been placed in family Lophiostomataceae, before family Etheirophoraceae was published in 2014.
The family includes the genera Etheirophora and Swampomyces . However, the genera Etheirophora and Swampomyces are not congeneric and they form a sister clade with Falcocladium species in an unsupported clade in Hypocreomycetidae, order incertae sedis. Subsequently, Jones et al. in 2015, introduced order Torpedosporales to accommodate the families Etheirophoraceae, Juncigenaceae and Torpedosporaceae. The order evolved with a stem age of 171–241 MYA .
They are ecological and economic significant as shown as the host-specificity of Keissleriella blephorospora = Etheirophora blepharospora, occurring on Rhizophora species in Hawaii has been reported and the species is involved in nutrient cycling.

Description

Fungal members of Etheirophoraceae have a sexual morph that has an ascomata that is subglobose to globose or pyriform, in shape and light brown to dark brown or black in colour. It is immersed, oblique or vertical to the host surface, clypeate, coriaceous, ostiolate, periphysate and papillate. The peridium is composed of several layers of brown to dark brown cell layers of 'textura angularis'. The paraphyses are numerous, mostly unbranched and attached to the apex of the ascomatal cavity. They are embedded in a gelatinous matrix. They have an asci that is 8- spored, unitunicate, cylindrical to oblong in shape, pedicellate, J− and persistent. The ascospores are 1–2-seriate, hyaline and ellipsoidal in shape. They have 1 to many septate, constricted at the septa, with a filamentous appendage at one or both ends. The appendages are bristle-like, origin undetermined. The asexual morph is yet undetermined.

Distribution

It has a scattered marine distribution, within the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, the Red Sea, Indian Ocean and the Baltic Sea. They have also been found near Australia, near Belize. in the Gulf of Mexico, near South Africa, near India, and in the South China Sea, near Hong Kong.
For example, Etheirophora bijubata was found on intertidal wood in the Pacific Ocean. Etheirophora blepharospora, Etheirophora bijubata and Etheirophora unijubata have all been found near the Hawaiian Islands. Also Etheirophora bijubata and Etheirophora blepharospora have been found in intertidal mangrove forests within Thailand. Also Etheirophora blepharospora has been found with other fungi such as Capillataspora corticola, Caryosporella rhizophorae, Hydrophloeda rhizospora and Rhizophila marina on Rhizophora in Hong Kong and the South China Sea.