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Neolecta
	Neolecta irregularis
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Fungi
Division:	Ascomycota
Subdivision:	Taphrinomycotina
Class:	Neolectomycetes; O.E. Erikss. & Winka 1997
Order:	Neolectales; Landvik, O.E. Erikss, Gargas & P. Gustaffs. 1993
Family:	Neolectaceae; Redhead 1977
Genus:	Neolecta; Speg. 1881
Species
	Neolecta flavovirescens; Neolecta irregularis (Irregular Earth Tongue); Neolecta vitellina (=N. aurantiaca) (Egg-yellow Earth Tongue);

Neolecta is a genus of ascomycetous fungi. The species share the English designation "Earth tongues" along with some better-known fungi (e.g. Geoglossum, Microglossum) with a similar general form, but in fact they are only distantly related.

Neolecta is the only genus belonging to the family Neolectaceae, which is the only family belonging to the order Neolectales. Neolectales, in turn, is the only order belonging to the class Neolectomycetes, which belongs to the subdivision Taphrinomycotina of the Ascomycota.^[4]

Description

Fruiting bodies take the shape of unbranched to lobed bright yellowish, orangish to pale yellow-green colored, club-shaped, smooth, fleshy columns up to about 7 centimetres (3 inches) tall.^[1]^[5]

Neolecta fruitbodies consist of hyphae and a hymenium. The hymenium lacks paraphyses and the asci lack croziers, which makes the genus distinctive among other earth-tongues.^[1]^[5] Neolecta vitellina forms masses of conidia by budding, hinting at the possibility that it also produces a yeast state.^[1]

Similar species

Species of the genus may resemble those of Clavulinopsis and Spathularia.^[6]

Taxonomy

Neolecta does not have any close relatives. Phylogenetically, it clusters weakly with a bizarre group of basal Ascomycota^[4]^[7] including: Taphrina, a dimorphic, half yeast, half filamentous genus parasitic on leaves, branches, and catkins; Schizosaccharomyces, a genus of fission yeasts (e.g. Schizosaccharomyces pombe); and Pneumocystis, a yeast-like genus of mammalian parasites. To date, the genus has been unculturable, suggesting it is either obligately parasitic or symbiotic. It provides important evidence for the evolutionary history of the Ascomycota and has been called a living fossil.^[8]

The genome of N. irregularis has been sequenced.^[9] Sequence analysis has revealed that rudimentary multicellularity is deeply rooted in the Ascomycota.

Distribution and habitat

Neolecta is found in Asia, Northern Europe, North America, and southern Brazil.^[5] The species all live in association with trees, and at least one, N. vitellina, grows from rootlets of its host,^[10] but it is not known whether the fungus is parasitic, saprotrophic, or mutualistic.^[5] It is said to be edible.^[1]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Redhead SA (1977). "The genus Neolecta (Neolectaceae fam. nov., Lecanorales, Ascomycetes) in Canada". Canadian Journal of Botany. 55 (3): 301–6. doi:10.1139/b77-041.
^ Landvik S.; et al. (1993). "Relationships of the genus Neolecta (Neolectales ordo nov., Ascomycotina) inferred from 18S rDNA sequences" (PDF). Systema Ascomycetum. 11: 114.
^ Eriksson OE, Winka K (1997). "Supraordinal taxa of Ascomycota". Myconet. 1: 1–16.
^ ^a ^b Lutzoni F, Kauff F, Cox CJ, McLaughlin D, Celio G, Dentinger B, Padamsee M, Hibbett D, James TY, Baloch E, Grube M, Reeb V, Hofstetter V, Schoch C, Arnold AE, Miadlikowska J, Spatafora J, Johnson D, Hambleton S, Crockett M, Shoemaker R, Sung GH, Lücking R, Lumbsch T, O'Donnell K, Binder M, Diederich P, Ertz D, Gueidan C, Hansen K, Harris RC, Hosaka K, Lim YW, Matheny B, Nishida H, Pfister D, Rogers J, Rossman A, Schmitt I, Sipman H, Stone J, Sugiyama J, Yahr R, Vilgalys R (2004). "Assembling the fungal tree of life: progress, classification, and evolution of subcellular traits". American Journal of Botany. 91 (10): 1446–80. doi:10.3732/ajb.91.10.1446. PMID 21652303.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Landvik S, Schumacher TK, Eriksson OE, Moss ST (2003). "Morphology and ultrastructure of Neolecta species". Mycological Research. 107 (9): 1021–31. doi:10.1017/S0953756203008219. PMID 14563128.
^ Audubon (2023). Mushrooms of North America. New York: Knopf. p. 22. ISBN 978-0-593-31998-7.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
^ Landvik S. (1996). "Neolecta, a fruit-body-producing genus of the basal ascomycetes, as shown by SSU and LSU rDNA sequences". Mycological Research. 100 (2): 199–202. doi:10.1016/S0953-7562(96)80122-5.
^ Landvik S, Eriksson E, Berbee ML (2001). "Neolecta—a fungal dinosaur? Evidence from β-tubulin amino acid sequences". Mycologia. 93 (6). Mycological Society of America: 1151–63. doi:10.2307/3761675. JSTOR 3761675.
^ Nguyen, T.A.; Cisse, O.H.; Yun Wong, J.; Zheng, P.; Hewitt, D.; Nowrousian, M.; Stajich, J.E.; Jedd, G. (2017). "Innovation and constraint leading to complex multicellularity in the Ascomycota". Nat Commun. 8: 14444. Bibcode:2017NatCo...814444N. doi:10.1038/ncomms14444. PMC 5309816. PMID 28176784.
^ Redhead SA (1979). "Mycological observations: 1, on Cristulariella; 2, on Valdensinia; 3, on Neolecta". Mycologia. 71 (6). Mycological Society of America: 1248–53. doi:10.2307/3759112. JSTOR 3759112.