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Abstract
Vittatispora coorgii gen. sp. nov., isolated from soil in India, is described and illustrated. The fungus has morphological characteristics of the genera Melanospora, Sphaerodes and Syspastospora. The most striking feature is the presence of a thick hyaline ridge along the vertical axis of the lemon-shaped ascospores wall. Perithecia also have a long neck composed of adhering hyphae, similar to that of Syspatospora. Phylogenetic studies on the 28S rDNA indicate it is closely related to Melanospora and Sphaerodes and belongs in the Ceratostomataceae. The new genus is based on the distinctive morphology and phylogenetic analyses. The fungus grew in culture only conjointly with a sterile fungus which a BLAST analysis suggested was close to Tetracladium marchalianum.
We are indebted to Shrikumar Suryanarayanan for his constant encouragement which made it possible to pursue this study. We gratefully acknowledge Dr Meredith Blackwell, Dr R.M. Harveson, Dr Fernando Vega, and Dr Jeffrey K. Stone for their invaluable advice. Our sincere thanks to the Biodiversity group, R&D Biocon; Bindu for her help with DNA extraction and PCR; and Surekha, Raju and Sheetal for their assistance throughout the course of this work. Thanks also to Dr K.R. Kannan and Mr K. Satyanarayanan of Indians Institute of Science, Bangalore, for assistance with SEM. The first author acknowledges Sanath, Sonali and Gautam for accompanying her on the sample collection trip. This work was undertaken while D.L.H. was supported by the Programa Ramón y Cajal of the Ministry of Science and Technology of Spain held in the Departamento de Biologìa Vegetal II of the Facultad de Farmacia of the Universidad Complutense de Madrid.