Fungalpedia – Note 1624, Pseudozythia
Pseudozythia Höhn.
Index Fungorum, Facesoffungi, MycoBank, GenBank, Fig 1
Classification: Incertae sedis, Incertae sedis, Incertae sedis, Incertae sedis, Pezizomycotina, Ascomycota, Fungi
Saprobic on the host plant (Kellerman and Ricker 1905). Sexual morph: undetermined. Asexual morph: Conidiomata pycnidial, solitary, superficial, pulvinate, globose to subglobose, unilocular, glabrous, with a short pseudoparenchymatous stalk. Ostiole absent, dehiscent by irregular splits of the apical wall. Conidiomatal wall composed of thin-walled, subhyaline to hyaline cells of textura angularis in the basal part, gradually merging with closely packed, septate, hyaline hyphae of textura intricata to textura prismatica in the periclinal part. Conidiophores arising from inner layer cells of basal stroma, hyaline, cylindrical to irregular, branched, septate, smooth-walled. Conidiogenous cells hyaline, holoblastic, occasionally sympodial, subcylindrical, integrated or discrete, determinate, smooth-walled, producing conidia terminally or immediately below the transverse septa. Conidia hyaline, fusiform, with inconspicuous truncate basal scars, straight or slightly curved, unicellular, smooth-walled, guttulate (adapted from Nag Raj and DiCosmo 1980).
Notes: Pseudozythia was re-described and re-illustrated by Nag Raj and DiCosmo (1980). The genus remains monotypic. Pseudozythia pusilla closely resembles the synanamorph of Pilidium concavum in having stalked conidiomata and cylindrical, branched conidiophores and enteroblastic, phialidic, integrated or discrete, apical or acropleurogenous conidiogenous cells (Palm 1991). The only difference between these two species is the conidia of Pseudozythia pusilla are fusiform while those of Pilidium concavum are fusiform to falcate or cymbiform. Pseudozythia might be congeneric with Pilidium, but this needs molecular data of Pseudozythia pusilla to confirm.
Type species: Pseudozythia pusilla Höhn., Sber. Akad. Wiss. Wien, Math.-naturw. Kl., Abt. 1 111: 1020 (1902).
Other accepted species: Species Fungorum – search Pseudozythia.
Figure 1 – Pseudozythia pusilla (redrawn from Nag Raj and DiCosmo 1980) a Vertical section of conidioma. b Conidiophores, conidiogenous cells and developing conidia. c 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.