Halotthiaceae fam. nov. (Pleosporales) accommodates the new genus Phaeoseptum and several other aquatic genera

Abstract

During survey of freshwater fungi in Haute Garonne in the Pyrenees (southern France), we collected a remarkable species that is most comparable to the maritime fungus Mauritiana rhizophorae. The maritime genera Halotthia, Pontoporeia and Mauritiana as well as our newly collected species form a monophyletic clade in phylograms generated from LSU rDNA sequence analyses. This clade has undetermined familial status, and our new species is not congeneric with Halotthia, Pontoporeia or Mauritiana. A new monotypic genus, Phaeoseptum (represented by Ph. aquaticum sp. nov), therefore is introduced to accommodate the newly collected freshwater taxon. A new family, Halotthiaceae, is introduced to accommodate the four aquatic genera Halotthia, Mauritiana, Phaeoseptum and Pontoporeia.

• freshwater fungi
• new genus
• Phaeoseptum
• phylogeny

Acknowledgments

This study is supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 200-1243011).

Ying Zhang thanks the Mushroom Research Foundation, Chiang Mai, Thailand, for providing a postdoctoral fellowship for this study. Gareth Jones is thanked for his comments on an earlier version of the manuscript.