Phyllosticta
Phyllosticta Pers., Traité champ. (Paris): 55, 147 (1818)
Dothideomycetes, order incertae sedis, Botryosphaeriales, Phyllostictaceae
Saprobic, parasitic or endophytic on wide range of hosts from trees to ornamentals or crops (Crous et al. 2006a, Wikee et al. 2013, Hern et al. 2019, this study). Sexual morph: see Wikee et al. (2013). Asexual morph: Conidiomata dark brown to black, pycnidial, solitary or gregarious, subepidermal, immersed to semi-immersed, globose or subglobose, unilocular or multilocular, glabrous, ostiolate. Ostiole single, circular, centrical. Conidiomatal wall composed of thick-walled, dark brown to hyaline cells of textura globulosa to textura prismatica Conidiophores usually reduced to conidiogenous cells. Conidiogenous cells hyaline, enteroblastic, annellidic, lageniform to subcylindrical, indeterminate, smooth-walled, percurrently proliferating. Conidia hyaline, subglobose, ovoid or obovoid, ellipsoidal or pomiform, subcylindrical, unicellular, smooth-walled, guttulate, surrounded by a mucoid envelope and bearing single, unbranched, attenuated, mucoid apical appendage. Spermatogenous cells hyaline, enteroblastic, phialidic, subcylindrical to ampulliform or lageniform, determinate, smooth-walled. Spermatia hyaline, cylindrical or dumbbell-shaped with rounded or blunt ends, aseptate (description of spermatogenous cells and spermatia adapted from Nag Raj (1993) and Wikee et al. (2013).
Type species: Phyllosticta convallariae Pers., Traité champ. (Paris): 148 (1818)
= Phyllosticta cruenta (Fr.) J. Kickx f., Mém. Acad. R. Sci. Lett. Arts. Brux. 23: 22 (1849)
Notes: Phyllosticta is a morphologically unique and ecologically important genus. The genus is characterized by unilocular, ostiolate ascomata with ellipsoid, or ellipsoid-fusoid to limoniform ascospores surrounded by a mucilaginous sheath, and ellipsoid-fusoid to ovoid, occasionally subcylindrical, aseptate conidia encased in a mucoid sheath and often with an apical appendage, as well as cylindrical or dumbbell-shaped spermatia (Nag Raj 1993, Liu et al. 2012, Wikee et al. 2013, Hern et al. 2019). Many Phyllosticta species are associated with leaf spots and various fruit diseases (Wicht et al. 2012, Pu et al. 2008, Wong et al. 2012, Wu et al. 2014), of which P. citricarpa, the cause of citrus black spot is regarded as a quarantine pest in Europe and the USA (Baayen et al. 2002, Glienke et al. 2011, Wikee et al. 2013, Guarnaccia et al. 2017).
More than 3000 epithets are listed in Index Fungorum (2019), but many of them have been transferred to another genus (Van der Aa and Vanev 2002, Crous et al. 2006a, Liu et al. 2012, Wikee et al. 2013). Wikee et al. (2013) revised Phyllosticta and transferred it to the resurrected family Phyllostictaceae from Botryosphaeriaceae. About 71 taxa have been studied by molecular means (Hern et al. 2019). We re-examined the herbarium specimens of P. plumbaginicola and P. sphaeropsoidea and provide detailed descriptions. We also introduce a new record of P. pervincae from Italy based on morphological characters. A new collection from Thailand, responsible for Musa sp. freckle disease is described. However, it lacks suitable gene sequences (e.g., ITS, act, gapdh, tef1), and thus we keep it as Phyllosticta sp., until molecular data is available.
Distribution: worldwide (Nag Raj 1993, Wikee et al. 2013, Liu et al. 2012, Hern et al. 2019).
References:
Li WJ, McKenZie EHC, Liu JK, Bhat DJ, Dai DQ, Caporesi E, Tian Q, Maharachcikumbura SSN, Luo ZL, Shang QJ, Zhang JF, Tangthirasunun N, Karunarathna SC, Xu JC, Hyde KD (2020) Taxonomy and phylogeny of hyaline-spored coelomycetes. Fungal Diversity 100: pages279–801.
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