Coniocarpon is a genus of lichen-forming fungi in the family Arthoniaceae.[1] It has eight species of corticolous (bark-dwelling) lichens.[2] This genus is distinct for its crystalline orange, red, and purple quinoid pigments in the ascomata that turn purple in potassium hydroxide solution, its colourless, transversely septate ascospores with large apical cells, and its rounded to lirellate ascomata (fruiting bodies).

Coniocarpon
Coniocarpon cinnabarinum
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Fungi
Division: Ascomycota
Class: Arthoniomycetes
Order: Arthoniales
Family: Arthoniaceae
Genus: Coniocarpon
DC. (1805)
Type species
Coniocarpon cinnabarinum
DC. (1805)
Species

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Taxonomy

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The genus was circumscribed by Augustin Pyramus de Candolle in 1805.[3] The genus was rejected against Arthonia as proposed in the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants in Appendices I–VII.[4] In 2014 however, Coniocarpon was resurrected by Andreas Frisch and colleagues for the Arthonia cinnabarina species complex, based on the results of molecular phylogenetics analysis, which showed that it formed a clade with the genus Reichlingia.[5] The type species of the genus, Coniocarpon cinnabarinum, had previously been designated by Rolf Santesson in 1952.[6]

Description

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The genus Coniocarpon, as revitalized by Frisch and colleagues in 2014, comprises lichens with a smooth thallus that is either immersed or slightly protruding, typically pale brown and often outlined by a dark line. Its photobiont is of the trentepohlioid type. The apothecia (fruiting bodies) of these lichens are irregularly rounded to weakly lobed, either lirellate or stellate, and emerge singly or in clusters. The true exciple is brown, consisting of compressed, vertically aligned paraphysoidal hyphae, which sometimes form short hairs on the outer margin and may have old bark cells attached.[7]

The disc of the apothecia is dark, ranging from flat to slightly convex, and may have a white pruinose surface, sometimes overlaid with an orange-red pruina, with margins that are level with the disc and may also be prominently orange-red pruinose, containing crystals. The epithecium is brown, composed of branched tips of paraphysoidal hyphae that extend horizontally above the asci. The hymenium is colourless and strongly conglutinated, with a hamathecium of densely branched and netted paraphysoids. The hypothecium is also colourless.[7]

The asci of Coniocarpon are of the Arthonia-type, obpyriform to clavate in shape, and typically contain eight spores. Its ascospores are colourless, obovoid with an enlarged apical cell, turning pale brown with granular ornamentation at maturity. Chemically, the exciple and epithecium react blue upon staining with solutions of iodine and potassium iodide, while the hymenium and hypothecium react red with iodine and blue with potassium iodide. The orange-red crystals dissolve in potassium hydroxide solution to form a transient, purplish solution.[7]

Species

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References

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  1. ^ Wijayawardene, N.N.; Hyde, K.D.; Dai, D.Q.; Sánchez-García, M.; Goto, B.T.; Saxena, R.K.; et al. (2022). "Outline of Fungi and fungus-like taxa – 2021". Mycosphere. 13 (1): 53–453 [83]. doi:10.5943/mycosphere/13/1/2. hdl:10481/76378.
  2. ^ "Coniocarpon". Catalogue of Life. Species 2000: Leiden, the Netherlands. Retrieved 22 December 2023.
  3. ^ a b Lamarck, J.B. de; De Candolle, A.P. (1805). Flore Française (in French). Vol. 2 (3 ed.). p. 323.
  4. ^ International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants. Regnum Vegetabile. Vol. 159. Koeltz Botanical Books. 26 June 2018. doi:10.12705/code.2018. ISBN 978-3-946583-16-5. S2CID 263409260.
  5. ^ a b Frisch, Andreas; Thor, Göran; Ertz, Damien; Grube, Martin (2014). "The Arthonialean challenge: Restructuring Arthoniaceae". Taxon. 63 (4): 727–744. doi:10.12705/634.20.
  6. ^ Santesson, R. (1952). "Foliicolous lichens. I. A revision of the taxonomy of the obligately foliicolous, lichenized fungi". Symbolae Botanicae Upsalienses. 12 (1): 68.
  7. ^ a b c Cannon, P.; Ertz, D.; Frisch, A.; Aptroot, A.; Chambers, S.; Coppins, B.; Sanderson, N.; Simkin, J.; Wolselsey, P. (2020). Arthoniales: Arthoniaceae, including the genera Arthonia, Arthothelium, Briancoppinsia, Bryostigma, Coniocarpon, Diarthonis, Inoderma, Naevia, Pachnolepia, Reichlingia, Snippocia, Sporodophoron, Synarthonia and Tylophoron. Revisions of British and Irish Lichens. Vol. 1. p. 32. doi:10.34885/173.
  8. ^ a b Van den Broeck, Dries; Frisch, Andreas; Razafindrahaja, Tahina; Van de Vijver, Bart; Ertz, Damien (2018). "Phylogenetic position of Synarthonia (lichenized Ascomycota, Arthoniaceae), with the description of six new species". Plant Ecology and Evolution. 151 (3): 327–351. doi:10.5091/plecevo.2018.1506. hdl:11250/3083462.
  9. ^ Kalb, Klaus; Buaruang, Kawinnat; Mongkolsuk, Pachara; Boonpragob, Kansri (2012). "New or otherwise interesting lichens. VI, including a lichenicolous fungus". Phytotaxa. 42: 35–47. doi:10.11646/phytotaxa.42.1.5.
  10. ^ Frisch, Andreas; Moen, Victoria Stornes; Grube, Martin; Bendiksby, Mika (2020). "Integrative taxonomy confirms three species of Coniocarpon (Arthoniaceae) in Norway". MycoKeys. 62: 27–51. doi:10.3897/mycokeys.62.48480. PMC 6992689. PMID 32025188.
  11. ^ Aptroot, André; de Souza, Maria Fernanda; dos Santos, Lidiane Alves; Junior, Isaias Oliveira; Barbosa, Bruno Micael Cardoso; da Silva, Marcela Eugenia Cáceres (2022). "New species of lichenized fungi from Brazil, with a record report of 492 species in a small area of the Amazon Forest". The Bryologist. 125 (3): 435–467. doi:10.1639/0007-2745-125.3.433. S2CID 251748219.
  12. ^ Aptroot, André; da Silva Cáceres, Marcela Eugenia (2018). "New lichen species from Chapada Diamantina, Bahia, Brazil". The Bryologist. 121 (1): 67–79. doi:10.1639/0007-2745-121.1.067. S2CID 90659999.
  13. ^ Perlmutter, Gary B.; Miranda-GonzáLez, Ricardo; Bungartz, Frank (2023). "Placement of Arthonia rubrocincta in Coniocarpon (lichenized Ascomycota: Arthoniaceae), with an extended range for the species in southeastern North America and the Caribbean". Phytotaxa. 589 (3): 278–282. doi:10.11646/phytotaxa.589.3.6. S2CID 257829617.