''Neolecta'' is a genus of

ascomycetous Ascomycota is a phylum of the kingdom Fungi that, together with the Basidiomycota, forms the subkingdom Dikarya. Its members are commonly known as the sac fungi or ascomycetes. It is the largest phylum of Fungi, with over 64,000 species. The defi ...

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 fr ...

that have fruiting bodies in the shape of unbranched to lobed bright yellowish, orangish to pale yellow-green colored, club-shaped, smooth, fleshy columns up to about 7 cm tall. The species share the English designation "Earth tongues" along with some better-known fungi (e.g. ''

Geoglossum ''Geoglossum'' is a genus of fungi in the family Geoglossaceae. They are commonly called earth tongues. The type species is ''Geoglossum glabrum''. ''Geoglossum'' species are distinguished from the related genus ''Trichoglossum'' by the lack of ...

'', ''

Microglossum ''Microglossum'' is a genus of fungi in the family Leotiaceae. Ascocarps (fruit bodies) occur in soil and resemble earth tongues, but are microscopically distinct. '' Microglossum atropurpureum'', a species typical of waxcap grassland in Europ ...

'') with a similar general form, but in fact they are only distantly related. ''Neolecta'' is the only genus belonging to the family Neolectaceae, which is the only family belonging to the order Neolectales. ''Neolectales'', in turn, is the only order belonging to the class Neolectomycetes, which belongs to the subdivision

Taphrinomycotina The Taphrinomycotina are one of three subdivisions constituting the Ascomycota (fungi that form their spores in a sac-like ascus) and is more or less synonymous with the slightly older invalid name Archiascomycetes (sometimes spelled Archaeascomy ...

of the

Ascomycota Ascomycota is a phylum of the kingdom Fungi that, together with the Basidiomycota, forms the subkingdom Dikarya. Its members are commonly known as the sac fungi or ascomycetes. It is the largest phylum of Fungi, with over 64,000 species. The defi ...

. ''Neolecta'' is found in Asia, North America, Northern Europe and southern Brazil. The species all live in association with trees, and at least one, ''N. vitellina'', grows from rootlets of its host, but it is not known whether the fungus is

parasitic Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The entomologist E. O. Wilson ha ...

saprotrophic Saprotrophic nutrition or lysotrophic nutrition is a process of chemoheterotrophic extracellular digestion involved in the processing of decayed (dead or waste) organic matter. It occurs in saprotrophs, and is most often associated with fungi ...

, or mutualistic. It is said to be edible. ''Neolecta'' does not have any close relatives. Phylogenetically, it clusters weakly with a bizarre group of basal ''Ascomycota'' including: ''

Taphrina ''Taphrina'' is a fungal genus within the Ascomycota that causes leaf and catkin curl diseases and witch's brooms of certain flowering plants. One of the more commonly observed species causes peach leaf curl. ''Taphrina'' typically grow as yeasts ...

'', a dimorphic, half

yeast Yeasts are eukaryotic, single-celled microorganisms classified as members of the fungus kingdom. The first yeast originated hundreds of millions of years ago, and at least 1,500 species are currently recognized. They are estimated to constit ...

, half filamentous genus parasitic on leaves, branches, and

catkins A catkin or ament is a slim, cylindrical flower cluster (a spike), with inconspicuous or no petals, usually wind-pollinated (anemophilous) but sometimes insect-pollinated (as in '' Salix''). They contain many, usually unisexual flowers, arrang ...

; '' Schizosaccharomyces'', a genus of fission yeasts (e.g. ''

Schizosaccharomyces pombe ''Schizosaccharomyces pombe'', also called "fission yeast", is a species of yeast used in traditional brewing and as a model organism in molecular and cell biology. It is a unicellular eukaryote, whose cells are rod-shaped. Cells typically measur ...

''); and ''

Pneumocystis The Pneumocystidomycetes are a class of ascomycete fungi. It includes the single order Pneumocystidales, which contains the single monotypic family Pneumocystidaceae, which in turn contains the genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic ...

'', a yeast-like genus of mammalian parasites. ''Neolecta'' fruitbodies consist of

hypha A hypha (; ) is a long, branching, filamentous structure of a fungus, oomycete, or actinobacterium. In most fungi, hyphae are the main mode of vegetative growth, and are collectively called a mycelium. Structure A hypha consists of one or ...

e and a

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 so ...

. The hymenium lacks

paraphyses Paraphyses are erect sterile filament-like support structures occurring among the reproductive apparatuses of fungi, ferns, bryophytes and some thallophytes. The singular form of the word is paraphysis. In certain fungi, they are part of the fe ...

and 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 ...

lack croziers, which makes the genus distinctive among other earth-tongues. ''Neolecta vitellina'' forms masses of

conidia A conidium ( ; ), sometimes termed an asexual chlamydospore or chlamydoconidium (), is an asexual, non- motile spore of a fungus. The word ''conidium'' comes from the Ancient Greek word for dust, ('). They are also called mitospores due to t ...

by budding, hinting at the possibility that it also produces a yeast state. However, to date, the genus has been unculturable, suggesting it is either obligately parasitic or symbiotic. It provides important evidence for the evolutionary history of the ''Ascomycota'' and has been called a

living fossil A living fossil is an extant taxon that cosmetically resembles related species known only from the fossil record. To be considered a living fossil, the fossil species must be old relative to the time of origin of the extant clade. Living foss ...

''Neolecta irregularis'' genome

The ''Neolecta irregularis'' genome has been sequenced. Sequence analysis has revealed that rudimentary multicellularity is deeply rooted in the Ascomycota.

References

External links

George Barron's mushroom illustrations

The Oregon Coalition of Interdisciplinary Databases: "Archiascomycetes: Early Diverging Ascomycetes"
{{Taxonbar, from=Q134470 Ascomycota Taxa named by Carlo Luigi Spegazzini Fungi described in 1881