Coniothyrium palmarum
Coniothyrium palmarum Corda, Icon. fung. (Prague) 4: 38 (1840).
Index Fungorum number: IF 170942; Facesoffungi number: FoF 11469, Fig. 1
Description: see Hyde et al. (2013).
Material considered: see Hyde et al. (2013).
Fig. 1 Coniothyrium palmarum (CBS 400.71). a, b Conidiomata on Chamaerops humilis (Palmae). c Developing conidia attached to conidiogenous cells. d Conidia. Scale bars: c, d = 10 μm.
Importance and role
Coniothyrium minitans is an antifungal agent that targets Sclerotinia sclerotiorum and Sclerotinia minor, common plant pathogens (Campbell 1947). This pesticide product is widely used in Europe (Austria, Germany, Hungary, Luxembourg, Poland and Switzerland).
Quarantine significance
Coniothyrium is of quarantine importance as it causes cankers on Rose (Rosa spp.) (Intrama 1968), leaf blight of Jojoba (Deborah et al. 1981) amongst others.
Coniothyrium produces wide range of chemicals such as (3R)-6-methoxy-7-chloromellein, (3R)-6-methoxymellein, (3S) -(3‘,5‘-dihydroxyphenyl) butan-2-one, 2-(1‘(E)-propenyl)-octa-4(E),6(Z)-diene-1,2-diol, 2-(hydroxymethyl) furan, cryptosporiopsinol, phenylethanol, (p-hydroxyphenyl) ethanol (Höller et al. 1999). Krohn et al. (2008) reported bioactive Nitronaphthalenes from an endophytic Coniothyrium taxon. Tomprefa et al. (2009) reported antimicrobial activity of Coniothyrium minitans and its macrolide antibiotic macrosphelide A. Elsebai et al. (2011, 2016) reported antimicrobial phenalenone derivatives from the marine-derived C. cereale.
There are 636 Coniothyrium epithets in Index Fungorum (2022), but several species have been transferred to other genera such as Abrothallus, Aposphaeria, Calophoma, Coniella, Coniothyrina, Cytoplea, Didymella, Diplodiella, Lasmeniella, Lichenoconium, Melanomma, Microsphaeropsis, Neocucurbitaria, Neosetophoma, Peyronellaea, Phyllostictella, Querciphoma and Readeriella. Coniothyrium comprises 451 species known on wide range of plants such as Abutilon avicennae (Malvaceae), Acacia tortilis (Fabaceae), Acantholimon alatavicum (Plumbaginaceae), Acer platanoides (Sapindaceae), Aconitum excelsum (Ranunculaceae), Alnus glutinosa (Betulaceae), Ammodendron conollyi (Fabaceae), Artctostaphylos glauca (Ericaceae), Cladrastis amurensis (Fabaceae), Hepatica acutiloba (Ranunculaceae), Linum arboreum (Linaceae) amongst others. Coniothyrium is known from Africa (Libya), Asia (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkmenistan), Europe (Greece, Georgia) and The United States (California, New York). Coniothyrium is a genus with very high diversity but the taxonomy of these species is uncertain. Due to its limited morphological characters, it might be those species belong to other genera. An attempt to revise this genus is warranted for future studies.
References
Campbell WA. 1947 – A New Species of Coniothyrium Parasitic on Sclerotia. Mycologia 39, 190–195.
De Gruyter J, Woudenberg JHC, Aveskamp AA, Verkley GJM et al. 2013 – Redisposition of phoma-like anamorphs in Pleosporales. Studies in Mycology 75, 1–36.
Elsebai MF, Ghabbour HA, Mehiri M. 2016 – Unusual Nitrogenous Phenalenone Derivatives from the Marine-Derived Fungus Coniothyrium cereale. Molecules 1, 21, 178.
Elsebai MF, Natesan L, Kehraus S, Mohamed IE et al. 2011 – HLE-inhibitory alkaloids with a polyketide skeleton from the marine-derived fungus Coniothyrium cereal. Journal of Natural Products 74, 2282–2285.
Höller U, König GM, Wright AD. 1999 – Three new metabolites from marine-derived fungi of the genera coniothyrium and microsphaeropsis. Journal of Natural Products 62, 1, 114–8.
Hyde KD, Jones EBG, Liu JK, Ariyawansa H et al. 2013 – Families of Dothideomycetes. Fungal Diversity 63, 1–313.
Intrama S. 1968 – Coniothyrium Rose canker in Oregon. Dissertation Abstracts B, The Sciences and Engineering 28, 4376–4377.
Krohn K, Kouam SF, Cludius-Brandt S, Draeger S, Schulz B. 2008 – Bioactive Nitronaphthalenes from an Endophytic Fungus, Coniothyrium sp., and Their Chemical Synthesis. European Journal of Organic Chemistry 3615–3618.
Tomprefa N, McQuilken MP, Hill RA, Whipps JM. 2009 – Antimicrobial activity of Coniothyrium minitans and its macrolide antibiotic macrosphelide A. Journal of Applied Microbiology 106, 2048–2056.
Verkley GJM, da Silva M, Wicklow DT, Crous PW. 2004 – Paraconiothyrium, a new genus to accommodate the mycoparasite Coniothyrium minitans, anamorphs of Paraphaeosphaeria, and four new species. Studies in Mycology 50, 323–335.
Young DJ, Alcorn SM. 1981 – A Coniothyrium sp. Causing Leaf Blight of Jojoba. Mycologia 73, 822–832.
Recent News
Recent paper to be publishedRecent Genus
NothocladosporiumPhillipsiella
Curreya
Recent Species
Nothocladosporium syzygiiPhillipsiella atra
Curreya conorum
