Ascomata of Lasiosphaeria deviata [Image credit: Andrew N. Miller, University of Illinois, Illinois Natural History Survey]

CSP 2019 Proposal "Comparative genomics and association mapping in Sordariales: insights into functional diversity in Neurospora and its relatives" aims to investigate the genomic bases of fungal thermophily and thermotolerance, biomass-degradation, and fungal-bacterial interactions. Sequencing multiple populations and species of Sordariales will enable comparative analysis across an order of biomass-degrading fungi frequently encountered in soil, compost and herbivore dung, and encompassing one of the few groups of thermophilic fungi.

Lasiosphaeria deviata ANM Acc 1003

Lasiosphaeria deviata ANM Acc 1003 was isolated from pieces of wood and herbaceous debris near Copenhagen, Denmark. Lasiosphaeria deviata belongs to Sordariales, family Lasiosphaeriaceae. It was originally described by mycologists Andrew Miller and Thomas Læssøe [1]. Species name “deviata” refers to a specific ascospore morphology, which deviates from the typical ascospores found in Lasiosphaeria [1]. Ascospores of L. deviata are dark brown and ellipsoid, and they possess hyaline, lash-like appendages at each end of the ascospore, which is reminiscent of the polyphyletic genus Arnium [1,2].

References

1. Crous, P. W. et al. (2021). Fungal Planet description sheets: 1284–1382. Persoonia-Molecular Phylogeny and Evolution of Fungi, 47(1).
2. Kruys, Å., Huhndorf, S. M., & Miller, A. N. (2015). Coprophilous contributions to the phylogeny of Lasiosphaeriaceae and allied taxa within Sordariales (Ascomycota, Fungi). Fungal Diversity, 70, 101-113.