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Marine fungi represent a group of organisms extremely important from an ecological and biotechnological point of view, but often still neglected. In this work, an in-depth analysis on the systematic and the phylogenetic position of 21 sterile mycelia, isolated from Posidonia oceanica, was performed.The molecular (ITS and LSU sequences) analysis showed that several of them are putative new species belonging to three orders in the Ascomycota phylum: Pleosporales, Capnodiales and Helotiales. Phylogenetic analyses were performed using Bayesian Inference and Maximum Likelihood approaches.Seven sterile mycelia belong to the genera firstly reported from marine environments.The bioinformatic analysis allowed to identify five sterile mycelia at species level and nine at genus level. Some of the analyzed sterile mycelia could belong to new lineages of marine fungi.

The fungal biodiversity in its overall is mostly still unknown and the ecological role of these organisms, particularly in some border ecosystems, is often underestimated. This study aims to give both an overview of the state of the art and to present new data on the mycodiversity in some peculiar environments as rocks, beach sand, and water in Italy. Particularly, rock fungi are here reported from high mountain peaks, sea cliffs, and monuments; sand associated fungi from beach ecosystems in Puglia and Ligurian coasts; marine fungi associated with the endemic seagrass of the Mediterranean Posidonia oceanica L.; aquatic hyphomycetes (Ingoldian fungi) from both streams in the Ticino Natural Park and lentic water in Lago Maggiore; fungi from the water distribution system in Turin. Ecological and evolutive considerations are put forward.

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-The rare Disciseda bovista is described from northern Italy (Piedmont) based upon a recent collection. This is the second documented collection of the species from Italy, and the first in recent times. The study of Vittadini's original material labelled as Lycoperdon defossum, a taxon considered by many authors as a synonym of D. bovista, reveals that it should be ascribed to D. candida and, as such, represents the first record of the species from Italy.