In: Sydowia 76, (2024): 149-160; ISSN 0082-0598, DOI 10.12905/0380.sydowia76-2024-0149, Published online on May 17, 2024

Murispora purpurea, sp. nov., and the aeroaquatic fungus Brocchiosphaera microspora from freshwater habitats in Egypt

Mahmoud S. Bakhit*, Ahmed E. Abdel-Aziz, Asmaa F. Mahmoud & Faten A. Abdel-Aziz

1 Department of Botany and Microbiology, Faculty of Science, Sohag University, Sohag 82524, Egypt
2 Department of Botany and Microbiology, Faculty of Science, New Valley University, El-Kharga 72511, Egypt
* e-mail: mahmoudsaad@science.sohag.edu.eg

Bakhit M.S., Abdel-Aziz A.E., Mahmoud A.F. & Abdel-Aziz F.A. (2024) Murispora purpurea, sp. nov., and the aeroaquatic
fungus Brocchiosphaera microspora from freshwater habitats in Egypt. – Sydowia 76: 149–160.

We report a new species, Murispora purpurea sp. nov., and the first record of an aeroaquatic fungus, Brocchiosphaera microspora
from the Nile river, Sohag, Egypt. The combined SSU and LSU gene analysis established the placement of M. purpurea as
a distinct branch within Murispora. It is the second species that lacks a sexual morph in this genus. The new species differs from
the three asexual morphs in Murispora by having erect, sub-cylindrical to fusoid sporodochia and very long, hyaline to brown,
multiseptate, filiform conidia. An aeroaquatic fungus producing orange conidia with dichotomous branches was also recorded
from submerged samples in freshwater habitats. Morphology and phylogenetic analyses based on combined SSU and LSU rDNA
placed it with Brocchiosphaera microspora.

Keywords: Amniculicolaceae, aquatic fungi, asexual fungi, Dothideomycetes, Nile river. – 1 new species.