Fungalpedia – Note 86 Dicephalospora
Dicephalospora Spooner
Citation when using this entry: Luo et al., in prep – Fungalpedia, discomycetes III. Mycosphere.
Index Fungorum, Facesoffungi; MycoBank, GenBank, Fig. 1
Dicephalospora is a genus of Halotthiaceae (Helotiales) reported by Spooner (1987) with D. calochroa as the type species. The genus comprises 18 species, of which 13 were reported from China and three from Thailand. The species occur on leaf petioles, rotten wood and twigs (Zhuang et al. 2016). Dicephalospora species are characterized by an erumpent or superficial, stipitate, yellow, orange, red to blackish apothecia. The ectal excipulum is composed of textura prismatica cells with refractive walls, and the medullary excipulum is composed of textura intricata cells. The species have filiform asci, J+ or J- in Melzer’s reagent, straight or slightly curved paraphyses at the apex, and hyaline, sub-ellipsoid to fusoid, guttulate ascospores, with a mucilaginous cap in the poles (Hosoya et al. 1999). There are 18 Dicephalospora species listed in Index Fungorum (2023). Dicephalospora species produce an interesting secondary metabolite named dicephalosterol, which can be used to develop drugs against prostatic hypertrophy (Hosoya et al. 1999). Due to the difficulty of obtaining pure cultures and their slow-growth on the medium, applications of Dicephalospora sp. are rarely published.
Type species: Dicephalospora calochroa (Syd. & P. Syd.) Spooner
Other accepted species: see Species Fungorum, search Dicephalospora for names.
Figure 1 – Dicephalospora chrysotricha (PDD 78708, PDD 78710). a Section through apothecium. b Ascospores. c Asci and paraphyses. d Ascus tips before and after dehiscence. Scale bars: a = 0.5 mm, b, d = 5 µm, c = 10 µm (redrawn from Verkley 2004).
References
Spooner BM. 1987 – Helotiales of Australasia: Geoglossaceae, Orbiliaceae, Sclerotiniaceae, Hyaloscyphaceae. Schweizerbart Science Publishers, Stuttgart, Germany, p. 711.
Zhuang WY, Zeng ZQ, Liu XX. 2016 – Taxonomic revision of the genus Dicephalospora Helotiales in China. Mycosystema 35, 791–801.
Hosoya T, Hamano K, Sugano M, Ogura Y et al. 1999 – Discovery of dicephalosterol, a new testosterone 5α–reductase inhibitor, and some new mycological aspects of its producer, Dicephalospora rufocornea (Sclerotiniaceae, Discomycetes). Mycoscience 40, 525–529.
Verkley GJM. 2004 – Redisposition of Chlorosplenium chrysotrichum to the genus Dicephalospora (Sclerotiniaceae, Ascomycota). Sydowia 56, 343–348.
Entry by
Luo L, Yunnan Key Laboratory of Fungal Diversity and Green Development, Key Laboratory for Plant Diversity and Biogeography of East Asia, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, Yunnan 650201, China and Center of Excellence in Fungal Research, Mae Fah Luang University, Chiang Rai, 57100, Thailand; School of Science, Mae Fah Luang University, Chiang Rai 57100, Thailand
(Edited by: K. W. Thilini Chethana & Kevin D. Hyde)