Cercosporella virgaureae
Cercosporella virgaureae (Thüm.) Allesch., Hedwigia 34: 286. 1895.
≡ Ramularia virgaureae Thüm., Fungi Austr. Exs., Cent. 11: no. 1072. 1874.
Index Fungorum number: IF 121662; Facesoffungi number: FoF 09772, Fig. 1
Description: see Braun (1995); Kirschner (2009).
Material considered: see Braun (1995); Kirschner (2009).
Fig. 1 Cercosporella virgaureae (re-drawn from Seifert et al. 2011). a Conidiophore fascicle. b Conidiophores. c Conidia. Scale bar = 5 μm.
Importance and distribution
Species of Cercosporella are plant pathogenic showing as leaf spots. Cercosporella disease causes reduced yield, poor quality fruit and in severe cases death of the host plant (Ellis and Converse 1991). There are 276 Cercosporella epithets in Index Fungorum (2022), but many species have been transferred to other genera such as Calonectria, Doassansiopsis, Eriomycopsis, Mycocentrospora, Mycopappus, Neophloeospora, Neopseudocercosporella, Oculimacula, Passalora, Pseudocercospora, Ramularia, Spermospora, Sphaerulina and Xenostigmina. Cercosporella comprises 71 species known on a wide range of plants such as Asteraceae, Betulaceae, Brassicaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Sapindaceae, Urticaceae and the genus has a worldwide distribution including Africa (Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya), Asia (China, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea), Europe (Switzerland), North America ((Canada), the United States) and South America (Ecuador).
Industrial relevance and applications
Compounds produced from Cercosporella may be useful in medical and pharmaceutical industries. Cercosporella acroptili and C. centaureicola are potential biological control agent of Russian knapweed and yellow starthistle, respectively (Berner et al. 2005). Cercosporella sp. is an effective biological control agent of Hamakua pamakani in the United States (Hawaii) (Gardner 1990).
Biochemical importance of the genus, chemical diversity or applications
Cercosporella produces a wide range of chemical and phytotoxins but more studies are needed for identification of those compounds. Acetosellin1 is a yellow pigment isolated from the mycelium of C. acetosella as a reduced azaphilone metabolite (Nasini et al. 2002).
References
Berner DK, Eskandari F, Braun U, McMahon M, Luster D. 2005 – Cercosporella acroptili and Cercosporella centaureicola sp. nov. Potential biological control agents of Russian knapweed and yellow starthistle, respectively. Mycologia 97, 1122–1128.
Braun U. 1995 – A monograph of Cercosporella, Ramularia and allied genera (phytopathogenic Hyphomycetes) Vol. 1. IHW-Verlag Eching, 1–333.
Braun U. 1998 – A monograph of Cercosporella, Ramularia and allied genera (phytopathogenic hyphomycetes): Vol. 1. IHW-Verlag, Eching, Munich, Germany.
Ellis MA, Converse RH. 1991 – Compendium of raspberry and blackberry diseases and insects. The American Phytopathological Society, APS Press.
Gardner DE. 1990 – Role of biological control as a management tool in national parks and other natural areas.
Kirschner R. 2009 – Cercosporella and Ramularia. Mycologia 101, 110–119.
Nasini G, Arnone A, Assante G, Candiani G, Pava O. 2002 – Structure and absolute configuration of acetosellin, a new polyketide from a phytotoxic strain of Cercosporella acetosella. Tetrahedron Letters 43, 1665–1668.
Seifert K, Morgan-Jones G, Gams W, Kendrick B. 2011 – The genera of hyphomycetes. CBS Biodiversity Series no. 9: 1–997. CBS-KNAW Fungal Biodiversity Centre, Utrecht, Netherlands.
Videira SI, Groenewald JZ, Braun U, Shin HD, Crous PW. 2016 – All that glitters is not Ramularia. Studies in Mycology 83, 49–163.
Videira SIR, Groenewald JZ, Nakashima C, Braun U, Barreto RW, de Wit PJGM, Crous PW. 2017 – Mycosphaerellaceae - Chaos or clarity? Studies in Mycology 87, 257–421.
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