User:DavidAnstiss/Protothelenellaceae

The Protothelenellaceae are a family of lichenized fungi in the Ascomycota, class Baeomycetales.

Protothelenella occupies a basal clade within the Ostropales (Resl et al. 2015) and further sampling may clarify its evolutionary ancestry.

Classification
-redo for order- The order Arctomiales was proposed by Soili Stenroos, Jolanta Miadlikowska, and François Lutzoni in 2014 to contain this family. In 2018, the class Lecanoromycetes was revised using a temporal approach that uses time-calibrated chronograms to define temporal bands for comparable ranks for orders and families. In this work, the orders Arctomiales, Hymeneliales, and Trapeliales were synonymized with Baeomycetales. In a subsequent review of the use of this method for biological classification of lichens, Robert Lücking considered this merge justified. This synonymy was also accepted in later compilations of fungal classification, and Arctomiaceae is classified in the order Baeomycetales.

We generated nuLSU and mtSSU rDNA sequences of members of seven families of pyrenocarpous lichens and used a Bayesian framework to infer a phylogenetic estimate. Members of the perithecioid Protothelenellaceae, Thelenellaceae and Thrombiaceae surprisingly cluster within the mainly discocarpous Lecanoromycetes.

It was placed in the Dothideomycetes class in 2008.

Description
Thallus crustose, but sometimes poorly developed, or even absent. Ascomata intermediate in form between apothecial and perithecial, immersed, sometimes becoming erumpent, dark green to black, and opened by a broad pore. Widely distributed in northern temperate regions. Some species grow as saprobes on bark, while others are lichenised with green algae, rarely lichenicolous.

Distribution
It has a subcosmopolitan distribution which means near cosmopolitanism, but with major gaps in the distribution - such as not found in Africa and most parts of Central and eastern Asia. It has been found in Japan, and New Zealand.

It grows in habitats which include acidic rocks and soil, bryophytes and detritus, wood, or other lichens. No secondary chemicals are produced.

Such as Protothelenella sphinctrinoides is a bryophilous lichen found in arctic-alpine to boreal-montane and circumpolar regions of the Northern Hemisphere. In Japan, specimens were found on the bryophytes such as (moss) Andreaea rupestris var. fauriei, (liverwort) Cephalozia otaruensis, (moss) Dicranum viride var. hakkodense and (liverworts) Jungermannia sp. growing on soil or rock in alpine areas.

Genera
According to "Wijayawardene et al. 2020", Protothelenellaceae contains;
 * Mycowinteria (with 3 species)
 * Protothelenella (11 species)
 * Thrombium (5 species)

As accepted by Species Fungorum, Mycowinteria with 1 sp. Mycowinteria anodonta, but placed in the Protothelenellaceae family.

While genus Protothelenella with 6 spp. is placed in the Lichinaceae family, and Thrombium – 14 spp. is placed in the Arthoniaceae family.