Fungalpedia – Note 1612, Pleurophoma
Pleurophoma Höhn.
Index Fungorum, Facesoffungi, MycoBank, GenBank, Fig 1
Classification: Lentitheciaceae, Xylariales, Xylariomycetidae, Sordariomycetes, Pezizomycotina, Ascomycota, Fungi
Saprobic on the host plant in terrestrial habitat, such as Acacia glaucoptera (Fabaceae), Pinus nigra (Pinaceae), Salix fragilis (Salicaceae) (Sutton 1980, Crous et al. 2016a, Tibpromma et al. 2017). Sexual morph: see Crous et al. (2015e) and Tibpromma et al. (2017). Asexual morph: Conidiomata black, pycnidial, solitary, superficial, globose to subglobose, unilocular, glabrous, ostiolate. Ostiole single, circular, centrally located. Conidiomatal wall composed of thick-walled, brown to pale brown then hyaline cells of textura angularis. Conidiophores arising from the inner wall layer of the conidiomata, hyaline, long, filiform, septate, branched. Conidiogenous cells hyaline, enteroblastic, phialidic, cylindrical to lageniform, integrated or discrete, determinate, smooth-walled, with apical apertures or lateral apertures which arise immediately below transverse septa, collarette and channel minute. Conidia hyaline, cylindrical to ellipsoid, unicellular, smooth-walled.
Notes: Sutton (1980) provided a detailed description and illustration for Pleurophoma, and accepted eight species in the genus. Pleurophoma has been disputed with Phoma taxa because of overlapping morphology of conidiophores and conidia (Sutton 1980, Boerema et al. 2004, de Gruyter et al. 2010). De Gruyter et al. (2013) fixed the generic concept by designating a lectotype for P. pleurospora and placed this genus in Lentitheciaceae. Subsequently, Crous et al. (2015e, 2016) and Tibpromma et al. (2017) included three additional taxa, P. ossicola Crous, Krawczynski & H.-G. Wagner, P. acaciae Crous, and P. italica Tibpromma, Camporesi & K.D. Hyde.
Pleurophoma can be confused with the microconidial or spermogonial states of Keissleriella as they share similar morphology of conidiomata, conidiophores, conidiogenous cells and conidia (this study). Phylogenetically, Keissleriella species clustered with Pleurophoma species, but without support (Fig. 194). We suspect that Keissleriella and Pleurophoma may be related, but this hypothesis needs adequate collection and culture of fresh specimens to clarify.
Type species: Pleurophoma pleurospora (Sacc.) Höhn., Sber. Akad. Wiss. Wien, Math.-naturw. Kl., Abt. 1 123: 117 (1914).
Other accepted species: Species Fungorum – search Pleurophoma.
Figure 1 – Pleurophoma pleurospora (redrawn from Sutton 1980) a Conidia. b Vertical section of coniodiomata. c Conidiophores, conidiogenous cells and developing conidia.
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.