Pseudocercospora punicae (Henn.) Deighton, Mycol. Pap.

Bakhshi, Mounes, Arzanlou, Mahdi, Babai-Ahari, Asadollah, Groenewald, Johannes Z. & Crous, Pedro W., 2014, Multi-gene analysis of Pseudocercospora spp. from Iran, Phytotaxa 184 (5), pp. 245-264 : 254-256

Pseudocercospora punicae (Henn.) Deighton, Mycol. Pap. 140: 151. 1976 ( Fig. 6 )

≡ Cercospora punicae Henn., Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 37: 165. 1906

Description in planta:— Leaf spots distinct, raised, amphigenous, irregular to subcircular, 1–8 mm diam., dark brown to black, sometimes with diffuse border, spots with colonies at first appearing as small irregular black spots, later coalescing up to 30 mm diam. Mycelium internal. Caespituli punctiform, amphigenous, scattered over the lesion surface, dark olivaceous-brown on leaves. Stromata well-developed, erumpent to semi-superficial, globular, pale to medium brown, 25–100 μm diam. Conidiophores medium brown, aggregated in dense sporodochial fascicles, arising from the upper cells of stromata, smooth, 0–1-septate, (10–)18–24(–35) × 2–2.5(–3.5) μm, predominantly reduced to conidiogenous cells, straight to curved, subcylindrical to ampulliform (when reduced to conidiogenous cells), unbranched. Conidiogenous cells terminal, or conidiophores reduced to conidiogenous cells, pale brown, smooth, proliferating sympodially or inconspicuously proliferating percurrently, loci inconspicuous neither thickened nor darkened. Conidia solitary, pale brown, guttulate, subcylindrical to obclavate, apex subobtuse to subacute, base truncate, straight to curved, 2–11-septate, (25–)60–75(–125) × 2–3.5 μm; hila not thickened nor darkened, 1–2 μm diam.

Cultural characteristics:— Colonies on MEA reaching 25 mm diam. after 20 days at 25 ºC in the dark; surface folded, erumpent with moderate aerial mycelium and irregular lobate margins. Dark olivaceous-grey on the surface, dark iron-grey underneath.

Habitat/Distribution:— Known to inhabit Punica granatum (Lythraceae) , worldwide including Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Bermuda, Brazil, Cambodia, China, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Ethiopia, Georgia, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Iran, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritius, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Panama, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sudan, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, USA (FL, HI, TX), Uganda, Venezuela, Virgin Islands, Zambia ( Crous & Braun 2003, Farr & Rossman 2014).

Material examined:— IRAN. Guilan Province: Talesh, Dulbin, on leaves and fruits of wild-grown cultivar of Punica granatum L. ( Lythraceae ), December 2011, M. Bakhshi ( CCTU 1125 = CBS 136111). Talesh, Kishunben, on leaves and fruits of a wild-grown cultivar of Punica granatum , October 2012, M. Bakhshi ( CCTU 1169).

Notes:— Although P. punicae is presently not known from DNA sequence data, isolates from Iran appear to be quite distinct in the multi-gene tree from other species ( Fig. 2 ). Pseudocercospora punicae has a worldwide distribution including Iran and its neighbouring countries ( Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Pakistan, etc.) ( Crous & Braun 2003). The description of present material fits the general circumscription of P. punicae , but the identification of Iranian material can only be definitely resolved once fresh material is collected from the type locality in Japan, and subjected to DNA sequence analysis. Pyracantha spp. (Rosaceae) once have been reported as host for this species ( Kobayashi 2007), there is no additional report on the occurrence of P. punicae on members of this genus.

Figures

FIGURE 2. A Bayesian inference phylogenetic tree of 59 isolates of Pseudocercospora. The tree was built using concatenated sequences of the ITS, ACT and TEF1-α loci, each with a separate model of DNA evolution. Species clades from Iran are indicated in green coloured blocks and species names in black text. Culture accession numbers are listed along with host plant (orange text) and place of origin (dark blue text). The tree was rooted to Passalora eucalypti (CBS 111318). Bayesian posterior probabilities ≥ 0.95 are indicated with colourcoded branches and scale bar indicates number of expected changes per site.

FIGURE 6. Pseudocercospora punicae. a, b. Leaf spots. c. Fruit spot. d–f. Fasciculate conidiophores. g–i. Conidia. Scale bars = 10 µm.