New insights into the Cenangiaceae: Marsonomyces, gen. nov., the first case of true polyspory in Helotiales, and taxonomic revisions in Neomelanconium.

Marsonomyces, a new Cenangiaceae genus from Europe and Macaronesia, is linked to true polyspory in Helotiales, featuring ~128-spored asci and elongated spore clusters.

• Why it matters: Helotiales polyspory has been poorly documented, and Cenangiaceae taxonomy needs clearer genus-level boundaries and species placements supported by morphology and phylogeny.
• What they did: The authors described two new species, M. pinicola and M. salicacearum, using collections from 1990–2020 plus rDNA and multigene phylogenetics, and they observed seven nuclear divisions before spore wall formation.
• The result: Marsonomyces is placed as sister to a clade of Encoelia/Velutarina, Cenangiopsis, and Trochila, while Hymenobolus kmetii is reinterpreted as Mycosphaerangium quercinum and Mycosphaerangium is synonymized with Neomelanconium.

AI summary of the abstract · may contain errors · not medical advice · read the paper.