Pteridiospora
Pteridiospora Penz. & Sacc., Malpighia 11: 399 (1897).
Index Fungorum number: IF 4536; Facesoffungi number: FoF 01231, 6 morphological species (Species Fungorum 2022), 4 species with molecular data.
Saprobic on bamboo, visible as darkened areas on the host surface with several raised, cone-shaped, gregarious, easily broken fruiting bodies. Sexual morph: Ascostromata erumpent through host tissue, becoming superficial, conical, dark brown to black, solitary to gregarious, uniloculate, flattened at the base with ruptured reflexed tooth-like host remnants around the base, central ostiole, with small papilla. Peridium carbonaceous, composed of opaque dark cells, poorly developed at the base. Hamathecium comprising numerous 1−2 µm wide, narrow, trabeculate, filiform, branched, anastomosing, pseudoparaphyses, embedded in gelatinous matrix. Asci 8-spored, bitunicate, fissitunicate, cylindric-clavate, short pedicellate, apically rounded with ocular chamber or surrounded by a faint ring, arising from base of ascoma. Ascospores overlapping, uni to bi-seriate, oblong to sub-fusoid narrowing towards apex, hyaline, uniseptate, constricted at the septum, upper cell longer than lower cell, smooth-walled, guttulate, surrounded by a large appendage in the lower cell, with wide mucilaginous sheath. Asexual morph: produced on sterilized bamboo pieces on WA or immersed in culture media. Conidiomata black, globose on bamboo pieces, or forming conidiomata radiating outwards on cultures colony, erumpent to superficial, covered by vegetative hyphae, uniloculate, solitary to gregarious. Conidiomata wall composed of two layers of cells of equal thickness, outer layer of brown to dark brown textura intricata, inner layer of dark brown to black textura angularis. Conidiophores arising from the basal cavity around conidiomata, oblong to cylindrical or ampulliform, straight or slightly curved, hyaline, unbranched, aseptate. Conidiogenous cells integrated, phialidic. Conidia globose to subglobose, forming chains, hyaline, aseptate, smooth-walled (adapted from Phookamsak et al. 2014).
Type species: Pteridiospora javanica Penz. & Sacc.
Notes: Filer (1969) placed Pteridiospora in Pleosporaceae based on morphology. Lumbsch and Huhndorf (2010) treated Pteridiospora in Dothideomycetes genera incertae sedis. Pteridiospora resembles Astrosphaeriella in having superficial, cone-shaped, carbonaceous ascomata, with star-like ruptured host tissue around the base, and trabeculate pseudoparaphyses but differs in having asymmetrical ascospores and irregular sheath while Astrosphaeriella has brown, fusiform, symmetrical, apically rounded ascospores and an ocular chamber (Hyde & Fröhlich 1998, Hyde et al. 2000, Tanaka et al. 2009, Phookamsak et al. 2014). Pteridiospora javanica was originally collected on dead culms of Bambusae from Java (Penzig & Saccardo 1897). Eriksson (1994) synonymized Apiospora carbonacea under Pteridiospora javanica. Phookamsak et al. (2014) observed the type specimen of Apiospora carbonacea and supported Eriksson’s observation and treated Apiospora carbonacea as a synonym of Pteridiospora javanica based on similar morphological characters. Phookamsak et al. (2014) also collected Pteridiospora javanica from Thailand and designated their specimen as the epitype of Pteridiospora javanica. Pteridiospora is morphologically and phylogenetically a distinct and well-defined genus in Astrosphaeriellaceae. Molecular markers available for Pteridiospora are ITS, LSU, SSU, RPB2 and TEF-1.
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