Fungalpedia – Note 2292, Prosthemium

 

Prosthemium Kunze

Citation when using this data: Hongsanan S et al. 2020 – Fungalpedia, Ascomycota.

Index Fungorum, Facesoffungi, MycoBank, GenBank, Fig. 1

Classification: Pleomassariaceae, Pleosporales, Pleosporomycetidae, Dothideomycetes, Pezizomycotina, Ascomycota, Fungi

Prosthemium is the asexual morph of Pleomassaria (Hantula et al. 1998, Hyde et al. 2013, Wijayawardene et al. 2014a). The genus is characterized by globose to subglobose conidiomata, with circular ostioles and brown euseptate conidia with distinct central cell (Tanaka et al. 2010). Sexual morph of this genus is characterized with medium- to large sized ascomata, cellular pseudoparaphyses, clavate to oblong asci and large and muriform ascospores (Barr 1982, Sivanesan 1984). The genus includes saprobes from terrestrial and temperate climatic regions. Seven Prosthemium species were resolved using combined gene analysis of ITS, LSU and tub sequence data available in the GenBank (Ariyawansa et al. 2016). For morphology of type species, see Tanaka et al. (2010).

Type species: Prosthemium betulinum Kunze.

Other accepted species: Species Fungorum – search Prosthemium.

 

image

 

Figure 1 – Prosthemium alni (MFLU 17-0282, holotype). a Branches of Alnus glutinosa. b Appearnace of raised, black conidiomata on host surface. c Vertical section through conidioma. d Vertical section through peridium. e Conidiogenous cells and developing conidia. f Immature conidia. g Mature conidia. h–i Upper view (h) and reverse view (i) of the colony on MEA. j Vegetative hyphae with premature conidiophores. k Germinating conidia on MEA after 12 hrs. Scale bars: b = 500 µm, c = 50 µm, d, j = 20 µm, k = 10 µm, e–g = 5 µm.

 

References

Ariyawansa HA, Hyde KD, Tanaka K, Maharachchik-Umbura SSN et al. 2016 – Additions to Karst Fungi 3: Prosthemium sinense sp nov., from Guizhou Province, China. Phytotaxa 284, 281–29.

Barr ME. 1982 – On the Pleomassariaceae (Pleosporales) in North America. Mycotaxon 15, 349–383.

Hantula J, Hallaksela AM, Kurkela T. 1998 – Relationship between Prosthemium betulinum and Pleomassaria siparia. Mycological Research 102, 1509–1512.

Hyde KD, Jones EBG, Liu J-K, Ariyawansa H et al. 2013 – Families of Dothideomycetes. Fungal Diversity 63, 1–313.

Sivanesan A. 1984 – The bitunicate ascomycetes and their anamorphs. J. Cramer, Vaduz, p 701.

Tanaka K, Meľnik VA, Kamiyama M, Hirayama K, Shirouzu T. 2010 – Molecular phylogeny of two coelomycetous fungal genera with stellate conidia, Prosthemium and Asterosporium, on Fagales trees. Botany 88, 1057–1071.

Wijayawardene NN, Camporesi E, Bhat DJ, Song Y et al. 2014a – Macrodiplodiopsis in Lophiostomataceae, Pleosporales. Phytotaxa 176, 192–200.

 

Entry by

Sinang Hongsanan, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory for Plant Epigenetics, Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Microbial Genetic Engineering, College of Life Science and Oceanography, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, People’s Republic of China, Center of Excellence in Fungal Research, Mae Fah Luang University, Chiang Rai 57100, Thailand, Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, Faculty of Agriculture, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai 50002, Thailand 

 

Published online 20 April 2026

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