Nesolechia is a genus of parasitic fungi in the family Parmeliaceae.[1] All three species in the genus grow on lichens. Nesolechia probably evolved from a lichen ancestor, as it is closely related to many lichenized species of fungi.[2]

Nesolechia
Nesolechia oxyspora growing on Punctelia rudecta
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Fungi
Division: Ascomycota
Class: Lecanoromycetes
Order: Lecanorales
Family: Parmeliaceae
Genus: Nesolechia
A.Massal. (1856)
Type species
Nesolechia oxyspora
(Tul.) A.Massal. (1856)
Species

N. doerfeltii
N. falcispora
N. oxyspora

Nesolechia fungi typically develop gall-like structures on their hosts that may be roughly spherical to lobe-like or leafy.[3]

Taxonomy

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The genus was circumscribed in 1856 by Italian lichenologist Abramo Bartolommeo Massalongo, with Nesolechia oxyspora assigned as the type species. It contained species formerly placed in Abrothallus that produced ascospores without a septum. He also included N. inquinans, N. thallicola, N. heeri, and N. punctum in the genus;[4] these are now placed in the genera Micarea, Phacopsis, Scutula, and Bachmanniomyces, respectively. In his 1930 work on parasitic fungi, Karl von Keissler included 10 species in Nesolechia.[5]

In 2017, Divakar and colleagues used a then-recently developed "temporal phylogenetic" approach to identify temporal bands for specific taxonomic ranks in the family Parmeliaceae, suggesting that groups of species that diverged within the time window of 29.45–32.55 million years ago represent genera. They proposed to synonymize genus Nesolechia with Punctelia (its lichen-forming sister group), because Nesolechia originated relatively recently and fell under the timeframe threshold for genus level.[6] This proposed synonymy was not accepted in a later critical analysis of the temporal phylogenetic approach for fungal classification.[7]

Species

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As of July 2021, Species Fungorum accepts three species in Nesolechia:[8]

Index Fungorum lists 62 taxa that have been named Nesolechia, but as Paul Diederich and colleagues explained in their 2018 review of lichenicolous fungi, "A high morphological plasticity, sometimes correlated with host selection, has led to the description of many poorly characterized taxa", and many of those published names are not accepted by taxonomic authorities,[3] or have been transferred to other genera. The following are taxa previously placed in Nesolechia but now accepted in other genera:

References

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  1. ^ Wijayawardene, Nalin; Hyde, Kevin; Al-Ani, LKT; S, Dolatabadi; Stadler, Marc; Haelewaters, Danny; et al. (2020). "Outline of Fungi and fungus-like taxa". Mycosphere. 11: 1060–1456. doi:10.5943/mycosphere/11/1/8. hdl:10481/61998.
  2. ^ "North American Lichen Checklist | Esslinger, T. L. 2009. A cumulative checklist for the lichen-forming, lichenicolous and allied fungi of the continental United States and Canada. North Dakota State University. First posted December 1, 1997; most recent update 27 August, 2009. Fargo, North Dakota". ndsu.nodak.edu. Retrieved 2016-11-12.
  3. ^ a b Diederich, Paul; Lawrey, James D.; Ertz, Damien (2018). "The 2018 classification and checklist of lichenicolous fungi, with 2000 non-lichenized, obligately lichenicolous taxa". The Bryologist. 121 (3): 340–425 (see p. 371). doi:10.1639/0007-2745-121.3.340. S2CID 92396850.
  4. ^ Massalongo, A.B. (1856). Miscellanea Lichenologica. Volume Pubblicate in Occasione delle Nozze Bizio-Pazienti (in Italian). Italy, Milano: Civelli. pp. 35–46.
  5. ^ Keissler, Karl von. Zahlbruckner, A. (ed.). Die Flechtenparasiten. Dr. L. Rabenhorst's Kryptogamen-Flora von Deutschland, Osterreich und der Schweiz. Die Flechten (Lichenes) (in German). Vol. 8 (2 ed.). Leipzig: Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft m. b. H.
  6. ^ Divakar, Pradeep K.; Crespo, Ana; Kraichak, Ekaphan; Leavitt, Steven D.; Singh, Garima; Schmitt, Imke; Lumbsch, H. Thorsten (2017). "Using a temporal phylogenetic method to harmonize family- and genus-level classification in the largest clade of lichen-forming fungi". Fungal Diversity. 84: 101–117. doi:10.1007/s13225-017-0379-z. S2CID 40674310.
  7. ^ Lücking, Robert (2019). "Stop the abuse of time! Strict temporal banding is not the future of rank-based classifications in Fungi (including lichens) and other organisms". Critical Reviews in Plant Sciences. 38 (3): 199–253. doi:10.1080/07352689.2019.1650517. S2CID 202859785.
  8. ^ Source dataset. Species Fungorum Plus: Species Fungorum for CoL+. "Nesolechia". Catalog of Life Version 2021-04-05. Retrieved 25 July 2021.