Fungalpedia – Note 927, Pseudophialocephala
Pseudophialocephala. M.S. Calabon, E.B.G. Jones & K.D. Hyde.
Citation when using this data Manawasinghe IS et al. 2022 (in prep.) – Fungalpedia, Ascomycota.
Index Fungorum, Facesoffungi, MycoBank, GenBank., Fig 1
Classification: Chaetosphaeriaceae, Chaetosphaeriales, Sordariomycetidae, Sordariomycetes, Dothideomycetes, Pezizomycotina, Ascomycota, Fungi
Saprobic on decaying wood from terrestrial and aquatic habitats. Sexual morph: Not observed. Asexual morph: Hyphomycetous. Colonies on natural substate effuse, white, brown, velvety. Mycelium partly superficial to immersed, composed of hyaline, branched, septate, guttulate hyphae constricted at the septa. Conidiophores determinate, macronematous, scattered, solitary, composed of stipe and penicillate heads. Stipe thick-walled, erect, straight, or broadly curved, cylindrical, brown, and wide at base, paler and slightly tapering toward the apex, terminating in a penicillate head. Penicillate heads composed of 1–3 series of metulae terminating in groups of conidiogenous cells. Metulae thin-walled, light brown to subhyaline. Conidiogenous cells monophialidic, integrated, discrete, determinate, terminal, clustered at the apex of secondary metulae, hyaline to pale brown, thin-walled, cylindrical, with inconspicuous openings, with minute collarettes. Conidia acrogenous, aseptate or 1-septate, aggregated in slimy and white masses, solitary to catenate, hyaline, ellipsoidal, cylindrical, rounded at each end, smooth and thin walled, guttulate.
Notes – Phialocephala sensu stricto, clade containing the type species Ph. dimorphospora, are saprotrophs mostly collected in temperate climates (Wijayawardene et al. 2020, Tanney & Seifert 2020). Species under Phialocephala sensu stricto include Ph. aylmerensis, Ph. biguttulata, Ph. botulispora, Ph. catenospora, Ph. cladophialophoroides, Ph. collarifera, Ph. dimorphospora, Ph. heterosperma, Ph. lagerbergii, Ph. lignicola, Ph. mallochii, Ph. nodosa, Ph. oblonga, and Ph. repens which clustered within Mollisiaceae. Phialocephala sensu lato is polyphyletic and it includes Ph. fluminis (Chaetothyriales), Ph. fusca (Ophiostomatales), Ph. hiberna (Mollisiaceae), Ph. humicola (Ophiostomatales, Sordariales), Ph. scopiformis (Mollisiaceae), Ph. virens (Ophiostomatales), and Ph. xalapensis (Ophiostomatales) (Grünig et al. 2002, Jacobs et al. 2003, Day et al. 2012, Tanney & Seifert 2020). Tanney & Miller (2017) suggested the placement of Phialocephala fusca and Ph. humicola in Chaetosphaeriales based on the BLASTn result of the ITS sequence data. In the present study, the combined LSU-ITS phylogenetic analyses confirm the placement of Phialocephala humicola in Chaetosphaeriaceae Phialocephala fusca (CBS 301.85), Chloridium lignicola (CBS 143.54) and Ch. pini (CPC 36627) formed an independent clade basal to the taxa of Chaetosphaeriaceae and is distant to the clade shared by Ps. humicola and other taxa of Chloridium and Sporochisma. Since Phialocephala humicola was morphologically different from the generic description of Chloridium and Sporochisma, we introduce a novel genus Pseudophialocephala to accommodate this taxon and also transfer Ch. aquaticum, Ch. salinicola, Ch. terricola, and Ph. xalapensis. A novel Pseudophialocephala taxon, Ps. cuneata, collected from decaying wood in Thailand, was introduced based on morphology and phylogenetic analysis of LSU and ITS sequence data. Three Pseudophialocephala species are saprobic from aquatic habitats: freshwater (Ps. aquatica) (Wei et al. 2018), marine (Ps. humicola, Ps. salinicola) (Dayarathne et al. 2020a, this study), and in terrestrial habitats (Ps. cuneata, Ps. humicola, Ps. terricola, Ps. xalapensis) (Jong & Davis 1972, Kiyuna et al. 2012, Chunyu et al. 2013).
Type species: Pseudophialocephala cuneata N.G. Liu, M.S. Calabon, E.B.G. Jones & K.D. Hyde.
Other accepted species: Species Fungorum – search Pseudophialocephala.
Figure 1 – Pseudophialocephala cuneata (MFLU 19–2852, holotype). a–c Conidiophores and conidia. d Conidiogenous cells and conidia. e–j Condia. Scale bars: a–c = 50 μm, d = 10 μm, e–j = 3 μm.
References
Jong SC, Davis EE. 1972 – Phialocephala humicola, a new hyphomycete. Mycologia 64, 1351–1356.
Entry by
Ishara Sandeepani Manawasinghe, Innovative Institute for Plant Health, Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering, Guangzhou 510225, PR of China
Published online 25 April 2022