Pleosporales » Leptosphaeriaceae

Paraleptosphaeria

Paraleptosphaeria Gruyter, Aveskamp & Verkley, in Gruyter et al., Stud. Mycol. 75: 20 (2012) [2013].

Index Fungorum number: IF 564720; Facesoffungi number: FoF 01159, 9 morphological species (Species Fungorum 2022), 9 species with molecular data.

Saprobic, fungicolous or pathogenic on stems and leaves of herbaceous or woody plants in terrestrial habitats. Sexual morph: Ascomata immersed, subglobose, solitary or aggregated, thick-walled, ostiolate, unilocular. Peridium thick-walled, comprising several scleroplectenchymatous cell layers, the outer layer heavily encrusted with pigment and often longitudinally striate on the surface, inner layer with flattened, light brown to dark brown cells. Hamathecium of dense 0.5–2 μm wide, long, septate, cellular pseudoparaphyses. Asci 8-spored, bitunicate, cylindric-clavate to broadly ellipsoidal, with bulbous pedicel, apically rounded, with an ocular chamber. Ascospores biseriate, hyaline to yellow brownish, fusiform and tapering to the ends, transversally 1–5-septate, slightly constricted at the central septum, cell above central septum swollen, with or lacking a mucilaginous sheath. Asexual morph: Conidiomata pycnidial, globose to subglobose, scleroplectenchymatous, with papillate pore, unilocular. Conidiogenous cells phialidic, ampulliform to doliiform. Conidia hyaline, aseptate, oblong to ellipsoidal. Sclerotia sometimes produced (adapted from De Gruyter et al. 2013, Ariyawansa et al. 2015).

 Type species: Paraleptosphaeria nitschkei (Rehm ex G. Winter) Gruyter, Aveskamp & Verkley

Notes: Paraleptosphaeria is characterised by immersed, subglobose, solitary or aggregated, thick-walled, ostiolate, unilocular ascomata, cylindric-clavate to broadly ellipsoidal asci, hyaline to yellow brownish, fusiform transversally 1–5-septate ascospores with or lacking a mucilaginous sheath. Munk (1957) considered Leptosphaeria as four sections Eu-Leptosphaeria, Para-Leptosphaeria, Scleropleella and Nodulosphaeria but Ariyawansa et al. (2015) mentioned that section Para-Leptosphaeria was an invalid section and is heterogenous. Para-Leptosphaeria was separated from Eu-Leptosphaeria which contained the type species of Leptosphaeria, L. doliolum (De Gruyter et al. 2013, Ariyawansa et al. 2014). Müller and Arx (1950) considered Leptosphaeria nitschkei as typical of section Eu-Leptosphaeria. Ariyawansa et al. (2015) showed that L. nitschkei is distantly related to L. doliolum based on phylogenetic analysis of combined dataset of SSU, LSU, ITS, RPB2, TEF and ACT gene regions. Ariyawansa et al. (2015) reported that the distinction of Leptosphaeria in sections Eu-Leptosphaeria and Para-Leptosphaeria cannot be proven from a molecular point of view. Liu et al. (2015) provided a reference specimen for Paraleptosphaeria nitschkei collected from Petasites sp. (Asteraceae) in Italy. Ariyawansa et al. (2015) added P. nitschkei also collected from Petasites sp. in Italy and designated a reference specimen. Ariyawansa et al. (2015) reported Paraleptosphaeria as a well-defined genus in Leptosphaeriaceae based on morphological characters and phylogenetic evidence from combined analysis of SSU, LSU, ITS, RPB2, TEF1 and ACT gene regions. The authors also added Paraleptosphaeria rubi to Paraleptosphaeria. Several authors added new species to Paraleptosphaeria (Tibpromma et al. 2017, Aiello et al. 2020, Piątek et al. 2020). Paraleptosphaeria is morphologically and phylogenetically a well-defined genus in Leptosphaeriaceae with good statistical support. Molecular markers available for Paraleptosphaeria are ITS, LSU, SSU, BTUB, RPB2 and TEF-1.

 

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