Abstract
This paper documents five new saprobic marine fungi occurring on various substrata in the marine environment. Bacusphaeria nypae gen. et sp. nov. was discovered on bases of fronds of Nypa fruticans in Malaysia and phylogenetically, it belongs to the Tirisporellaceae (Tirisporellales, Diaporthomycetidae, Sordariomycetes) based on 18S and 28S rDNA. Cryptovalsa avicenniae, Ceriosporopsis minuta and Jattaea mucronata also belong to the Sordariomycetes; Cr. avicenniae was saprobic on Avicennia marina collected in Saudi Arabia, J. mucronata on intertidal decaying bark of Rhizophora mucronata while Ce. minuta was found on driftwood collected on a sandy beach in Japan. Phylogeny based on 18S and 28S rDNA placed Cr. avicenniae with other Cryptovalsa species in the Diatrypaceae. Jattaea mucronata groups well in the Calosphaeriales and is closely related to J. algeriensis based on a phylogeny using ITS and 28S rRNA and RPB2 genes. Aegeanispora elanii gen. et sp. nov. is an asexual fungus which produces pycnidia on decaying driftwood collected in the Aegean Sea. Combined 18S and 28S rDNA phylogenetic analyses suggest that it is a member of the Pleosporales, Dothideomycetes. Ceriosporopsis minuta resembles C. capillacea with its tubular, long polar appendages of ascospores but dimensions of ascomata and ascospores for the former species are considerably smaller. Ceriosporopsis is considered the best genus to accommodate C. minuta without support from sequence data. Sammeyersia is established as a new genus to accommodate Lulworthia grandispora, a species unrelated to Lulworthia fucicola, the type species. The diagnostic characteristic for the genus is a melanized region at the base of the neck of the ascomata.
About the authors

Mohamed A. Abdel-Wahab obtained his MSc degree in Marine Fungi from the Sohag University, Egypt. He joined City University of Hong Kong in 1997–2001 and obtained his PhD degree in Marine Mycology in 2001. During 2004–2008, he worked as a Visiting Scholar at the Institute for Biotechnology and Drug-Research, University of Kaiserslautern, Germany, Center of Marine Biotechnology and Biomedicine – Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California-San Diego, USA and XBR, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Japan where he worked on ecology, molecular phylogeny and natural products of marine fungi. During 2011–2013 he joined the Department of Botany and Microbiology, King Saud University, Saudi Arabia.
Monika C. Dayarathne is a PhD student on taxonomy, phylogeny and evolution of marine fungi under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Kevin D. Hyde at Mae Fah Luang University Thailand and the Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Satinee Suetrong is a Researcher at the Fungal Biodiversity Laboratory, Biodiversity and Biotechnological Resource Research Unit (BBR), National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (BIOTEC), Thailand. She earned her PhD degree in Microbiology at the Prince of Songkla University, Thailand. Her research interests include marine Dothideomycetous fungi, rock inhabiting and deteriorating fungi in Thailand – isolation, characterization and their natural products and polyunsaturated fatty acid production.
Sheng-Yu Guo obtained her MSc degree from the National Taiwan Ocean University studying phylogeny of marine fungi under the supervision of Ka-Lai Pang. She works as a Research Assistant in Ka-Lai Pang’s laboratory.
Siti Aisyah Alias graduated from the University of Malaya, Malaysia with a BSc degree in Ecology in 1991 and earned a PhD degree in Marine Mycology at the University of Portsmouth in 1996. She is now a Researcher at the Institute of Ocean and Earth Sciences (IOES) and has been the Deputy Director of the National Antarctic Research Centre (NARC) and Malaysian Antarctic Research Programme (MARP). Her scientific research fields include fungal biodiversity and phylobiogeography and antimicrobial activity, cold-adapted enzymes and biochemistry of polar fungi.
Ali H. Bahkali obtained his PhD degree from the University of Wales, UK in 1983. He is working on various topics in mycology including ecology, physiology and molecular phylogeny.
Takahiko Nagahama is a well-known Researcher working on fungal diversity in the deep sea, especially marine yeasts. His research expertise includes molecular phylogeny, especially metagenomics.
Abdallah M. Elgorban is an Assistant Professor of plant pathology (mycology), with a BSc degree in Plant Pathology and MSc and PhD degrees of Plant Pathology (mycology). He has 15 years of academic experience at two major Arab universities (Mansoura University, Egypt and King Saud University, Saudi Arabia). He also has 17 years of experience in scientific research in the fields of plant pathology and marine mycology, with research interests in: morphological and molecular identification of plant-parasitic fungi and marine mycology; host/pathogen interactions; and biological control of plant-parasitic diseases.
Faten A. Abdel-Aziz obtained her MSc degree in Freshwater Fungi in 2001 and her PhD degree in aquatic fungi in 2004 from Sohag University, Egypt. She studies ecology, taxonomy and molecular phylogeny of aquatic fungi.
Mohamed S. Hodhod obtained his MSc degree from King Saud University, Saudi Arabia in 2012 on Marine Fungi under the supervision of Mohamed A. Abdel-Wahab.
Mohamed O. Al-Hebshi obtained his MSc degree from King Saud University, Saudi Arabia in 2014 in Marine Fungi under the supervision of Mohamed A. Abdel-Wahab.
Kevin D. Hyde is head of the Center of Excellence in Fungal Research. He obtained a PhD degree in Mycology from Portsmouth University in 1988 and a DSc from the University of Wales in 2001. He was one of the top 1% of cited scientists and listed as one as the most influential scientists in his field in the Thomson Reuters report in 2014. His current research includes mushroom growing, plant pathology and fungal ecology and phylogeny. Professor Hyde’s H’ Index in Web of Science is 62; he has published 950+ SCI papers and 20+ books and supervised about 100 PhD students.
Norlailatul A.B.M. Nor obtained her MSc degree from the University of Malaya in 2016 studying community structure of marine fungi on Nypa fruticans in Peninsular Malaysia under the supervision of Associate Prof. Dr. Siti Aisyah Alias. She worked as a Research Assistant in Dr. Siti Aisyah’s laboratory from 2009–2014.
Ka-Lai Pang obtained his BSc and PhD degrees from the City University of Hong Kong in 1998 and 2001, respectively. During 2002–2007, he worked as a Post-Doc Research Fellow at the University of Portsmouth (UK), BIOTEC (Thailand) and City University of Hong Kong on various projects related to the ecology and phylogeny of marine fungi. In 2007, he joined the faculty at National Taiwan Ocean University where he studies the biology of marine fungi and fungus-like organisms and endophytic fungi associated with mangrove plants and macroalgae.
E.B. Gareth Jones is a renowned Professor of Marine Mycology. He obtained his PhD degree from the University of Leeds, UK and was awarded a DSc from the University of Wales, UK. He has supervised over 100 PhD/MSc students and published over 500 research articles. He is now a Visiting Professor at the Chiang Mai University, Thailand.
Acknowledgements
K.L. Pang would like to thank the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan for financial support (NSC101-2621-B-019-001-MY3). The authors would like to extend their sincere appreciation to the Deanship of Scientific Research at King Saud University for funding this research group (RG-1436-025). This work was financially supported by the TRF/BIOTEC Special Program for Biodiversity Research and Training Grants BRT R_325015 and 352112. For their continued interest and support we also thank BIOTEC: Prof. Morakot Tanticharoen; Dr. Kanyawim Kirtikara; and Dr. Lily Eurwilaichitr.
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