2.5.17 Qarounispora grandiappendiculata

Nourel-Din et al. (2022) introduced the monotypic genus Qarounispora to accommodate Q. grandiappendiculata that was identified from decaying submerged wood that was collected from Qaroun Lake, El-Faiyum governorate, Egypt. Qarounispora grandiappendiculata is characterized by having membranous ascomata that are yellow to orange in colour with one-layered peridium, semi-persistent asci and oneseptate, thick-walled, distoseptate, hyaline to yellow-orange, broadly ellipsoidal ascospores with one polar appendage that is amorphous in structure, large in size and irregular in shape. Multigene analyses based on LSU, SSU and ITS rDNA placed Q. grandiappendiculata in the Halosphaeriaceae in a branch distinct from morphologically related fungal taxa with one polar appendage to the ascospores: Moana, Okeanomyces, Ophiodeira, and Tirispora . Qarounispora is phylogenetically related to Nimbospora, but Nimbospora has two types of appendages: an enlarged sheath surrounding the ascospores and fibrillar equatorial appendages (Koch 1982; Kohlmeyer and Volkmann-Kohlmeyer 1991).