Product Code Database
Sarcopyrenia is a genus of lichenicolous (lichen-dwelling) fungi. It has 11 species. It is the only genus in Sarcopyreniaceae, a family in the order Verrucariales. Sarcopyreniaceae is one of the few families composed entirely of lichenicolous fungi. These tiny fungi produce small, black, flask-shaped fruiting bodies (perithecia) typically less than half a millimetre across, containing extremely narrow, thread-like . While they initially grow on , their fruiting bodies often outlast their hosts and end up sitting on bare rock, making their exact relationship with lichens somewhat unclear.
The sexual fruiting bodies are perithecia: small, black, flask-like structures with a single pore (an ostiole) at the top. They are carbon-rich and brittle, smooth to slightly warty, and tend to occur singly rather than in clusters. Young perithecia can begin partly buried in the thallus, but as the surrounding tissue deteriorates they end up sitting on the surface. The wall of the perithecium (the ) is built in three layers of angular cells: an outer, coal-black layer; a middle layer that ranges from colourless to darkened; and a thinner inner layer of smaller, side-compressed cells.
Inside the perithecium the spore-bearing tissue includes fine threads (paraphyses) that disappear early, while short bristles lining the pore () are present. The gel around the spores does not change colour in iodine tests, and the spore sacs (ascus) are cylindrical to slightly club-shaped, short-stalked, thin-walled, and do not show the special "double-wall" opening () or beaked tip () seen in some other ascomycetes. Each ascus carries eight colourless spores arranged in two rows. The spores are thin-walled and very narrow—ranging from thread-like to dumb-bell-shaped, sometimes gently S-shaped—with slightly swollen tips; they may be one-celled or with a cross-wall, and lack any gelatinous sheath or appendages. Asexual reproductive structures (conidiomata) have not been observed, and standard thin-layer chromatography has not detected secondary .
Sarcopyrenia species are usually treated as lichen-dwelling fungi (lichenicolous), although some authors have reported an associated simple green alga (a photobiont). Colonies appear to begin as parasites of crustose lichens, but the fruiting bodies often outlast the host and end up on bare rock, leaving their mode of nutrition uncertain.
|
|
