''Siphulopsis'' is a single-species fungal

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

in the family

Icmadophilaceae The Icmadophilaceae are a family of lichen-forming fungi in the order Pertusariales. The family was circumscribed in 1993 by the mycologist Dagmar Treibel. It contains 9 genera and 35 species. Description Icmadophilaceae species are usually c ...

. This

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unisp ...

genus the contains the

fruticose lichen A fruticose lichen is a form of lichen fungi that is characterized by a coral-like shrubby or bushy growth structure. It is formed from a symbiotic relationship of a photobiont such as green algae or less commonly cyanobacteria and one, two or m ...

species ''Siphulopsis queenslandica'', found in Australia. This lichen was originally described by

Gintaras Kantvilas Gintaras Kantvilas (born 1956) is an Australian lichenologist, who earned his Ph.D. in 1985 from the University of Tasmania with a thesis entitled ''Studies on Tasmanian rainforest lichens''. He has authored over 432 species names, and 167 gene ...

in 2018. He tentatively classified it in the genus '' Knightiella'' due to morphological similarities with ''Knightiella eucalypti'' (since transferred to the genus ''

Knightiellastrum ''Knightiellastrum'' is a single-species fungal genus in the family Icmadophilaceae. This monotypic genus the contains the corticolous lichen, corticolous (bark-dwelling), squamulose lichen species ''Knightiellastrum eucalypti'', found in Tasma ...

''), but

molecular phylogenetics Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

revealed it to constitute a distinct lineage. The genus name ''Siphulopsis'' combines the name '' Siphula'', referring to a similar genus, with the Greek

suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns and adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can ca ...

''-opsis'', which denotes resemblance. This naming reflects the similarity in

thallus Thallus (: 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. A thallus usually names the entir ...

morphology between this species and those of ''Siphula''.

Description

The species ''Siphulopsis queenslandica'' initiates its growth as small, scale-like patches () and soon develops into shrub-like, cushioned clumps (), typically presenting a whitish to pale ashen-grey colour. This species lacks

rhizine In lichens, rhizines are multicellular root-like structures arising mainly from the lower surface. A lichen with rhizines is termed rhizinate, while a lichen lacking rhizines is termed erhizinate. Rhizines serve only to anchor the lichen to their s ...

s (root-like structures for attachment). Upon examination of a cross-section of the thallus, a can be observed. This outer layer is about 20–30

μm The micrometre (Commonwealth English as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures; SI symbol: μm) or micrometer (American English), also commonly known by the non-SI term micron, is a unit of length in the International System ...

thick and consists of poorly differentiated, short-celled

hypha A hypha (; ) is a long, branching, filamentous structure of a fungus, oomycete, or actinobacterium. In most fungi, hyphae are the main mode of vegetative growth, and are collectively called a mycelium. Structure A hypha consists of one o ...

e, each approximately 5 μm wide. This layer also contains sporadically interspersed dead cells of its

photosynthetic Photosynthesis ( ) is a Biological system, system of biological processes by which Photoautotrophism, photosynthetic organisms, such as most plants, algae, and cyanobacteria, convert light energy, typically from sunlight, into the chemical ener ...

partner, a unicellular

green alga The green algae (: green alga) are a group of chlorophyll-containing autotrophic eukaryotes consisting of the phylum Prasinodermophyta and its unnamed sister group that contains the Chlorophyta and Charophyta/ Streptophyta. The land plants ( ...

. The algal cells are spherical and measure between 6 and 10 μm in diameter. Reproductive structures known as

ascomata An ascocarp, or ascoma (: ascomata), is the fruiting body (sporocarp (fungi), sporocarp) of an ascomycete phylum fungus. It consists of very tightly interwoven hyphae and millions of embedded ascus, asci, each of which typically contains four to ...

are not observed in this species. However, it possesses

pycnidia A pycnidium (plural pycnidia) is an asexual fruiting body produced by mitosporic fungi, for instance in the order Sphaeropsidales ( Deuteromycota, Coelomycetes) or order Pleosporales (Ascomycota, Dothideomycetes). It is often spherical or inve ...

, which are small, flask-shaped structures embedded within the thallus, producing (rod-shaped)

conidia A conidium ( ; : conidia), sometimes termed an asexual chlamydospore or chlamydoconidium (: chlamydoconidia), is an asexual, non- motile spore of a fungus. The word ''conidium'' comes from the Ancient Greek word for dust, ('). They are also ...

, which are involved in

asexual reproduction Asexual reproduction is a type of reproduction that does not involve the fusion of gametes or change in the number of chromosomes. The offspring that arise by asexual reproduction from either unicellular or multicellular organisms inherit the f ...

. The chemical composition of ''Siphulopsis queenslandica'' includes

thamnolic acid Thamnolic acid is a β-orcinol depside with the molecular formula C19H16O11. Thamnolic acid was first isolated from the lichen '' Thamnolia vermicularis'', but it also occur in ''Cladonia ''Cladonia'' is a genus of moss-like lichenized fungi ...

, a

secondary metabolite Secondary metabolites, also called ''specialised metabolites'', ''secondary products'', or ''natural products'', are organic compounds produced by any lifeform, e.g. bacteria, archaea, fungi, animals, or plants, which are not directly involved ...

common in many lichen species. The generic description of ''Siphulopsis'' references its fruticose thallus that contains thamnolic acid, which is somewhat similar to ''Siphulae''but lacks rhizines and is not genetically related to this genus.

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q101670837 , from2=Q108375236 , from3=Q105494752 Pertusariales Pertusariales genera Lichen genera Taxa described in 2020 Taxa named by Gintaras Kantvilas