Celotheliaceae is a

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

fungi A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separately from ...

in the monotypic

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * Heterarchy, a system of organization wherein the elements have the potential to be ranked a number of d ...

Phaeomoniellales. It contains 27 species of

crustose lichen Crustose lichens are lichens that form a crust which strongly adheres to the Substrate (biology), substrate (soil, rock, tree bark, etc.), making separation from the substrate impossible without destruction. The basic structure of crustose lichen ...

s with

thalli Thallus (plural: thalli), from Latinized Greek (), meaning "a green shoot" or "twig", is the vegetative tissue of some organisms in diverse groups such as algae, fungi, some liverworts, lichens, and the Myxogastria. Many of these organisms were ...

that are more or less immersed in tree bark.

Taxonomy

The family was proposed in 2008 by

Robert Lücking Robert Lücking (born 1964) is a German lichenologist. He is a leading expert on foliicolous lichens–lichens that live on leaves. Life and career Born in Ulm in 1964, Lücking earned both his master's (1990) and PhD degree (1994) at the Univer ...

André Aptroot André Aptroot (Heemskerk, 1961) is a Dutch mycologist and lichenologist. In 1993 he did his PhD at the University of Utrecht under the supervision of Robbert Gradstein (nl). His dissertation was titled "Systematic studies on pyrenocarpous li ...

, and

Harrie Sipman Henricus (Harrie) Johannes Maria Sipman (born 1945) is a Dutch lichenologist. He specialises in tropical and subtropical lichens, and has authored or co-authored more than 250 scientific publications. He was the curator of the lichen herbarium ...

, while the order was

circumscribed In geometry, the circumscribed circle or circumcircle of a polygon is a circle that passes through all the vertices of the polygon. The center of this circle is called the circumcenter and its radius is called the circumradius. Not every polyg ...

in 2015. It is

sister A sister is a woman or a girl who shares one or more parents with another individual; a female sibling. The male counterpart is a brother. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to refer to ...

to the

clade A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English term, ...

that includes the orders

Verrucariales Verrucariales is an order of ascomycetous fungi within the subclass Chaetothyriomycetidae of the class Eurotiomycetes. Although most of the Verrucariales are lichenised, the family Sarcopyreniaceae consists of 11 species of lichenicolous (liche ...

and

Chaetothyriales The Chaetothyriales are an order of ascomycetous fungi in the class Eurotiomycetes and within the subclass Chaetothyriomycetidae. The order was circumscribed in 1987 by mycologist Margaret Elizabeth Barr-Bigelow. Families and genera , Species F ...

Molecular clock The molecular clock is a figurative term for a technique that uses the mutation rate of biomolecules to deduce the time in prehistory when two or more life forms diverged. The biomolecular data used for such calculations are usually nucleoti ...

calculations suggest that the order originated when

gymnosperm The gymnosperms ( lit. revealed seeds) are a group of seed-producing plants that includes conifers, cycads, ''Ginkgo'', and gnetophytes, forming the clade Gymnospermae. The term ''gymnosperm'' comes from the composite word in el, γυμνό� ...

diversification occurred. The family Phaeomoniellaceae was proposed by Paul Kirk in 2015, using a reference to the description of the order Phaeomoniellales, circumscribed earlier that year. However, because '' Celothelium'' (the

type genus In biological taxonomy, the type genus is the genus which defines a biological family and the root of the family name. Zoological nomenclature According to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, "The name-bearing type of a nominal f ...

of Celotheliaceae) is also included in the circumscription of the Phaeomoniellaceae, the older family name takes precedence and consequently, Phaeomoniellaceae is an illegitimate name according to nomenclatural rules; it is placed in

synonymy A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are all ...

with Celotheliaceae.

Description

The family Celotheliaceae contains

s that are mostly immersed in bark, with some showing a

prothallus A prothallus, or prothallium, (from Latin ''pro'' = forwards and Greek ''θαλλος'' (''thallos'') = twig) is usually the gametophyte stage in the life of a fern or other pteridophyte. Occasionally the term is also used to describe the young ...

. The is (sometimes from genus '' Trentepohlia''), with its filaments intermingling with bark cells beneath the substrate surface. Their

ascomata An ascocarp, or ascoma (), is the fruiting body ( sporocarp) of an ascomycete phylum fungus. It consists of very tightly interwoven hyphae and millions of embedded asci, each of which typically contains four to eight ascospores. Ascocarps are mo ...

are , which are black, range from circular to elongated, and can be either or superficial. These perithecia, either solitary or in groups, are covered by a (blackened) with individual

ostiole An ''ostiole'' is a small hole or opening through which algae or fungi release their mature spores. The word is a diminutive of "ostium", "opening". The term is also used in higher plants, for example to denote the opening of the involuted ...

s, and are in shape. The , transitioning in colour from pale to dark brown, blends with the involucrellum, but appears colourless and subtle beneath the

asci ASCI or Asci may refer to: * Advertising Standards Council of India * Asci, the plural of ascus, in fungal anatomy * Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative * American Society for Clinical Investigation * Argus Sour Crude Index * Association of ...

. The (sterile cells and tissue in the

hymenium The hymenium is the tissue layer on the hymenophore of a fungal fruiting body where the cells develop into basidia or asci, which produce spores. In some species all of the cells of the hymenium develop into basidia or asci, while in others some ...

) consists of a network of branched and interconnected , lacking , and a hymenial gel that does not turn deep blue when stained with

iodine Iodine is a chemical element with the symbol I and atomic number 53. The heaviest of the stable halogens, it exists as a semi-lustrous, non-metallic solid at standard conditions that melts to form a deep violet liquid at , and boils to a vi ...

. Asci are typically eight-spored, narrowly elongate-cylindrical, in form and occasionally have a small internal apical (beak-like structure). The asci are often topped with a meniscus that is visible in

Congo red Congo red is an organic compound, the sodium salt of 3,3′-( ,1′-biphenyl4,4′-diyl)bis(4-aminonaphthalene-1-sulfonic acid). It is an azo dye. Congo red is water-soluble, yielding a red colloidal solution; its solubility is greater in organic ...

and Lactophenol cotton blue stains. are uniquely entwined or helically coiled, very long, , colourless, and multiseptate with pointed ends. For conidiomata, which are pycnidial or stromatic, they can be either immersed or superficial, and are dark brown to black. Conidiogenous cells are elongate-bottle-shaped, lining the conidiomatal cavity, while the are thread-like, colourless, and have multiple septa. Chemically, an unidentified yellow

pigment A pigment is a colored material that is completely or nearly insoluble in water. In contrast, dyes are typically soluble, at least at some stage in their use. Generally dyes are often organic compounds whereas pigments are often inorganic compo ...

has been observed on the exciple of '' Celothelium lutescens'' when treated with a solution of

potassium hydroxide Potassium hydroxide is an inorganic compound with the formula K OH, and is commonly called caustic potash. Along with sodium hydroxide (NaOH), KOH is a prototypical strong base. It has many industrial and niche applications, most of which exp ...

(K).

Genera

These are the genera that are in the Phaeomoniellaceae (including estimated number of species in each genus, totalling 27 species), according to a 2021 review of fungal classification. Following the genus name is the

taxonomic authority In biology, taxonomy () is the scientific study of naming, defining ( circumscribing) and classifying groups of biological organisms based on shared characteristics. Organisms are grouped into taxa (singular: taxon) and these groups are given ...

(those who first circumscribed the genus; standardised author abbreviations are used), year of publication, and the estimated number of species. *'' Aequabiliella'' – 1 sp. *'' Celerioriella'' – 3 spp. *'' Celothelium'' – 8 spp. *'' Minutiella'' – 1 sp. *'' Moristroma'' – 4 spp. *'' Neophaeomoniella'' – 3 spp. *'' Nothophaeomoniella'' – 1 sp. *'' Paraphaeomoniella'' – 1 sp. *'' Phaeomoniella'' – 2 spp. *'' Pseudophaeomoniella'' – 2 spp. *'' Xenocylindrosporium'' – 1 sp.

Sesquiterpenes Sesquiterpenes are a class of terpenes that consist of three isoprene units and often have the molecular formula C15H24. Like monoterpenes, sesquiterpenes may be cyclic or contain rings, including many unique combinations. Biochemical modificatio ...

and polyketides metabolites are found in ''

Picea rubens ''Picea rubens'', commonly known as red spruce, is a species of spruce native to eastern North America, ranging from eastern Quebec and Nova Scotia, west to the Adirondack Mountains and south through New England along the Appalachians to western ...

'' endophytes ''Phaemoniella''.Anna Maria Pirttilä and A. Carolin Frank (Editors)

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q10444698 Eurotiomycetes Ascomycota families Lichen families Taxa described in 2008 Taxa named by Robert Lücking Taxa named by André Aptroot Taxa named by Harrie Sipman