Pseudocercospora vitis
Pseudocercospora vitis (Lév.) Speg., Anal. Mus. nac. B. Aires, Ser. 3 13: 438 (1910) [1911].
≡ Septonema vitis Lév., Annls Sci. Nat., Bot., sér. 3 9: 261 (1848).
Index Fungorum number: IF 187930; Facesoffungi number: FoF 11207, Fig. 1
Description: see Crous et al. (2019).
Material examined: see Crous et al. (2019).
Fig. 1 Pseudocercospora vitis (re-drawn from Fig. 2 in Harvey and Wenham 1972). a Symptoms. b Conidiophore bundles. c Conidia. Scale bars: a = 10 μm, b = 50 μm.
Importance and distribution
Majority of Pseudocercospora species are plant pathogens on a wide variety of plants mainly in tropical and sub-tropical environments causing leaf spots, blights, fruit spot and fruit rot (Chupp 1954; Deighton 1976; von Arx 1983; Pons and Sutton 1988). There are 1642 Pseudocercospora epithets in Index Fungorum (2022), but many have been transferred to other genera such as Arthrophiala, Cercospora, Cercosporella, Clypeosphaerella, Fusarium, Helminthosporium, Mycosphaerella, Neopseudocercosporella, Parapallidocercospora, Passalora, Phaeomycocentrospora, Pruniphilomyces, Pseudocercosporella and Zasmidium. Pseudocercospora have been reported from many hosts and plant families including Apiaceae, Apocynaceae, Araceae, Asteraceae, Balsaminaceae, Boraginaceae, Cornaceae, Dioscoreaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Fabaceae, Leguminosae, Nyctaginaceae, Phyllanthaceae and Poaceae. Pseudocercospora is known from Asia (China, India, Jamaica), South America (Brazil, Venezuela), the United States (California, West Indies) and many others.
Industrial relevance and applications
Pseudocercospora is useful in medical industry as it produces terreic acid which is a potential anticancer drug as it inhibits Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (Kong et al. 2018). Though minimal, Pseudocercospora palicoureae has some biocontrol effect against the rubiaceous weed Palicourea marcgravii in Brazil (Pereira and Barreto 2006).
Quarantine significance
Pseudocercospora can cause disease on wide range of plants. Pseudocercospora angolensis is the cause of fruit and leaf spot disease on citrus (Pretorius et al. 2003) while P. pini-densiflorae causes brown needle blight of pine (Evans 1984; Crous et al. 1990). These diseases reflect the importance of quarantine regulations.
Biochemical importance of the genus, chemical diversity or applications
Prihantini et al. (2017) reported two compounds terreic acid and 6-methylsalicylic acid from Pseudocercospora sp. The compounds have good reducing power and can bleach β-carotene. Pseudocercospora can also produce a number of phenolic compounds (Bárcena et al. 2018).
References
Braun U, Hill CF. 2002 – Some new micromycetes from New Zealand. Mycological Progress 1, 19–30.
Braun U. 1992 – Taxonomic notes on some species of the Cercospora complex. Nova Hedwigia 55, 211–221
Braun U. 1995 – Miscellaneous notes on phytopathogenic hyphomycetes (II). Mycotaxon 55, 223–241.
Chupp C. 1954 – A monograph of the fungus genus Cercospora. Ithaca New York.
Crous P, Braun U. 1996 – Cercosporoid fungi from South Africa. Mycological Research 57, 233–321.
Crous PW, Aptroot A, Kang JC, Braun U, Wingfield MJ. 2000 – The genus Mycosphaerella and its anamorphs. Studies in Mycology 45, 107–121.
Pons N, Sutton BC. 1988 – Cercospora and similar fungi on yams (Dioscorea species). Mycological Papers 160.
Von Arx JA. 1983 – Mycosphaerella and its anamorphs. Proceedings of the Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen: Series C: Biological and Medical Sciences 86, 15–54.
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