Qarounispora Nourel-Din, Abdel-Aziz & Abdel-Wahab, gen. nov.

MycoBank number: MB 841141

Etymology:— Named after the Qaroun Lake.

Ascomata perithecial, ostiolate, papillate, partly immersed or superficial, globose to subglobose, yellow to orangebrown in color, membranous. Neck cylindrical to conical, hyaline to yellow, periphysate. Peridium membranous, onelayered, forming textura angularis. Catenophyses present, developing from the pseudoparenchyma of the centrum. Asci unitunicate, thin-walled, without an apical apparatus, developing at the base of the ascomatal venter, eight-spored, semi-persistent, clavate or broadly ellipsoidal. Ascospores hyaline to yellow-orange in color, one-septate, thick-walled, distoseptate, ellipsoidal to broadly ellipsoidal, with one polar appendage.

Type species:— Qarounispora grandiappendiculata Nourel-Din, Abdel-Aziz & Abdel-Wahab.

Notes:— There are five genera in the Halosphaeiaceae that possess one polar appendage to the ascospores: Moana Kohlm. & Volkm. -Kohlm., Oceanitis Kohlm., Okeanomyces K.L. Pang & E.B.G. Jones, Ophiodeira Kohlm. & Volkm. -Kohlm. and Tirispora E.B.G. Jones & Vrijmoed. Molecular phylogenetic analyses of ribosomal multigenes placed Qarounispora in a phylogenetically distant clade from these five genera. The new genus grouped with species of Nimbospora (Figure 1). However, both genera are morphologically different. The ascospores of Nimbospora have two type of appendages: enlarged sheath surrounding the ascospores and fibrillar equatorial appendages. Moana turbinulata Kohlm. & Volkm-Kohlm. differs from Qarounispora grandiappendiculata by having thin-walled, unicellular ascospores with a turban-like appendage which uncoils in seawater to produce a long ribbon (Kohlmeyer & Volkmann-Kohlmeyer 1989). Oceanitis differs from Qarounispora by having long and fusiform, hyaline, multi-septate ascospores, with uncoiling appendages at one or both poles (Shearer & Crane 1980, Dupont et al. 2009). Okeanomyces differs from Qarounispora by having brown to black ascomata, early deliquescing asci and cylindrical, thin-walled, hyaline ascospores with a cap-like, subglobose, terminal, deciduous appendage at one end (Kohlmeyer & Kohlmeyer 1979, Pang et al. 2004). Ophiodeira differs from Qarounispora by having dark-brown ascomata that is immersed under a thin black stroma and the nature of the ascospore appendage that is cap-like, attached to the apex and side of the ascospore, at first stiff and homogenous, in water becoming soft and banner-like, eventually transforming into a coil of delicate fibers that uncoil and form long, sticky filaments (Kohlmeyer & Volkmann-Kohlmeyer 1988). Tirispora differs from Qarounispora by having dark-brown ascomata, asci with a ring and apical plate, and the nature of the appendage that is initially adpressed to spore wall but unfurls to form a long filamentous thread (Jones et al. 1994).

Halosarpheia japonica Abdel-Wahab & Nagahama has one polar appendage that consists of amorphous material enclosed in cellular sheath that dissolves in water and the appendage swell to form huge tree-like appendage that is similar in its nature and shape to the appendages of Qarounispora grandiappendiculata . However, H. japonica differs from Qarounispora grandiappendiculata by having brown to black, large ascomata with thick peridium with unicellular ascospores. Molecular phylogenetic analyses of the ribosomal genes placed H. japonica in the Halosarpheia sensu stricto (Abdel-Wahab & Nagahama 2012).