''Aptrootia'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...

fungi A fungus (plural, : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of Eukaryote, eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and Mold (fungus), molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified ...

in the family

Trypetheliaceae The Trypetheliaceae are a family of mainly lichen-forming fungi in the order Trypetheliales. Genera *'' Alloarthopyrenia'' – 1 sp. *'' Aptrootia'' – 3 spp. *'' Architrypethelium'' – 8 spp. *''Astrothelium'' – ca. 275 spp. *'' Bathel ...

. It has three species. The genus was

circumscribed In geometry, the circumscribed circle or circumcircle of a polygon is a circle that passes through all the vertices of the polygon. The center of this circle is called the circumcenter and its radius is called the circumradius. Not every po ...

Robert Lücking Robert Lücking (born 1964) is a German lichenologist. He is a leading expert on foliicolous lichens–lichens that live on leaves. Life and career Born in Ulm in 1964, Lücking earned both his master's (1990) and PhD degree (1994) at the Univer ...

and

Harrie Sipman Henricus (Harrie) Johannes Maria Sipman (born 1945) is a Dutch lichenologist. He specialises in tropical and subtropical lichens, and has authored or co-authored more than 250 scientific publications. He was the curator of the lichen herbarium ...

in 2007, with ''Aptrootia terricola'' assigned as the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen( ...

. This species, originally described by Dutch mycologist

André Aptroot André Aptroot ( Heemskerk, 1961) is a Dutch mycologist and lichenologist. In 1993 he did his PhD at the University of Utrecht under the supervision of Robbert Gradstein (nl). His dissertation was titled "Systematic studies on pyrenocarpous l ...

as a species of ''

Thelenella ''Thelenella'' is a genus of lichen-forming fungi in the family Thelenellaceae. It has 30 species. The genus was circumscribed by Finnish lichenologist William Nylander in 1855, with '' Thelenella modesta'' assigned as the type species In zoo ...

'', is known from

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

and Costa Rica. Later

molecular A molecule is a group of two or more atoms held together by attractive forces known as chemical bonds; depending on context, the term may or may not include ions which satisfy this criterion. In quantum physics, organic chemistry, and bioch ...

work showed that the species did not belong in ''Thelenella'' (Aptroot himself had expressed doubt about this generic placement), but rather, in the Trypetheliaceae, with a

sister taxon In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree. Definition The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram: Taxon A and ...

relationship to a branch including '' Bathelium'' and a

lineage Lineage may refer to: Science * Lineage (anthropology), a group that can demonstrate its common descent from an apical ancestor or a direct line of descent from an ancestor * Lineage (evolution), a temporal sequence of individuals, populatio ...

containing ''

Trypethelium floridanum ''Trypethelium'' is a genus of lichenized fungi in the family Trypetheliaceae. The widespread genus contains about 50 species that are predominantly found in tropical areas. ''Trypethelium'' was circumscribed by German botanist Kurt Polycarp Joa ...

''. The new genus name honours Aptroot, "in recognition of his numerous contributions to tropical lichenology". Species in genus ''Aptrootia'' have completely immersed

perithecia An ascocarp, or ascoma (), is the fruiting body ( sporocarp) of an ascomycete phylum fungus. It consists of very tightly interwoven hyphae and millions of embedded asci, each of which typically contains four to eight ascospores. Ascocarps are mo ...

with a brown-black ostiolar region. This is surrounded by a white, cartilaginous

thallus Thallus (plural: thalli), from Latinized Greek (), meaning "a green shoot" or " twig", is the vegetative tissue of some organisms in diverse groups such as algae, fungi, some liverworts, lichens, and the Myxogastria. Many of these organisms ...

reminiscent of those in family

Gomphillaceae The Gomphillaceae are a family of lichens in the order Ostropales. Species in this family are found mostly in tropical regions. Genera According to a recent (2020) estimate, the Gomphillaceae comprise 26 genera and about 420 species. The followi ...

Species

*''

Aptrootia elatior ''Aptrootia'' is a genus of fungi in the family Trypetheliaceae. It has three species. The genus was circumscribed by Robert Lücking and Harrie Sipman in 2007, with ''Aptrootia terricola'' assigned as the type species. This species, originally d ...

'' – Australia *''

Aptrootia robusta ''Aptrootia'' is a genus of fungi in the family Trypetheliaceae. It has three species. The genus was circumscribed by Robert Lücking and Harrie Sipman in 2007, with ''Aptrootia terricola'' assigned as the type species. This species, originally d ...

'' – Australia *''

Aptrootia terricola ''Aptrootia'' is a genus of fungi in the family Trypetheliaceae. It has three species. The genus was circumscribed by Robert Lücking and Harrie Sipman in 2007, with ''Aptrootia terricola'' assigned as the type species. This species, originally d ...

'' – Papua New Guinea; Costa Rica

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q4782267 Trypetheliaceae Lichen genera Dothideomycetes genera Taxa named by Robert Lücking Taxa described in 2007 Taxa named by Harrie Sipman