Biodiversity in the Cladosporium herbarum complex (Davidiellaceae, Capnodiales), with standardisation of methods for Cladosporium taxonomy and diagnostics

Abstract

The Cladosporium herbarum complex comprises five species for which Davidiella teleomorphs are known. Cladosporium herbarum s. str. (D. tassiana), C. macrocarpum (D. macrocarpa) and C. bruhnei (D. allicina) are distinguishable by having conidia of different width, and by teleomorph characters. Davidiella variabile is introduced as teleomorph of C. variabile, a homothallic species occurring on Spinacia, and D. macrospora is known to be the teleomorph of C. iridis on Iris spp. The C. herbarum complex combines low molecular distance with a high degree of clonal or inbreeding diversity. Entities differ from each other by multilocus sequence data and by phenetic differences, and thus can be interpreted to represent individual taxa. Isolates of the C. herbarum complex that were formerly associated with opportunistic human infections, cluster with C. bruhnei. Several species are newly described from hypersaline water, namely C. ramotenellum, C. tenellum, C. subinflatum, and C. herbaroides. Cladosporium pseudiridis collected from Iris sp. in New Zealand, is also a member of this species complex and shown to be distinct from C. iridis that occurs on this host elsewhere in the world. A further new species from New Zealand is C. sinuosum on Fuchsia excorticata. Cladosporium antarcticum is newly described from a lichen, Caloplaca regalis, collected in Antarctica, and C. subtilissimum from grape berries in the U.S.A., while the new combination C. ossifragi, the oldest valid name of the Cladosporium known from Narthecium in Europe, is proposed. Standard protocols and media are herewith proposed to facilitate future morphological examination of Cladosporium spp. in culture, and neotypes or epitypes are proposed for all species treated.

The rise of Ramularia from the Mycosphaerella labyrinth

“…Early molecular work based on ITS DNA sequencing indicated that Mycosphaerella was monophyletic, although the subsequent introduction of additional loci and more taxa showed it was polyphyletic ( Crous et al, 2009a andCrous et al, 2009c). As a consequence, members of this genus were allocated to different families such as Schizothyriaceae ( Batzer et al 2008), Cladosporiaceae ( Schubert et al, 2007, Dugan et al, 2008, Bensch et al, 2010and Bensch et al, 2012, Dissoconiaceae, Mycosphaerellaceae and Teratosphaeriaceae ( Crous et al, 2009b andLi et al, 2012). From these results it became evident that the mycosphaerella-like morphology had evolved multiple times and a new circumscription of Mycosphaerella was urgently required.…”

The health state of Ginkgo biloba L. in the presence of microfungi

“…The conidia of C. herbarum are near at the apex of growing hyphae, pale brown to olive, and variable in shape and size; oblong, ovoid, smooth, 1-3-septate, constricted at the septum (Saccardo 1886). Schubert et al (2007) minutely described the morphological characteristics of C. herbarum. Intercalary conidia ellipsoid to cylindrical, 6-16 × 4-6 μm, 0-1-septate, secondary ramoconidia ellipsoid to cylindrical-oblong, 12-25(-35) × (3-)5-7(-9) μm, 0-1(-2)-septate, rarely with up to three septa, sometimes distinctly constricted at the septum, pale greyish brown or brown to medium brown or greyish brown (Schubert et al 2007).…”

Development of a DNA Array for the Simple Identification of Major Filamentous Fungi in the Beverage Manufacturing Environment

“…Table 2 shows nucleotide sequences of the probes and target fungi. For identificat i o n o f t h e g e n e r a A l t e r n a r i a , A u re o b a s i d i u m , Cladosporium, Curvularia, Exophiala, Phoma, and Trichoderma, probes were designed on the basis of the common nucleotide sequence identified in each of the genera Schubert et al, 2007;Zalar et al, 2008;Bensch et al, 2010 . For Fusarium and Penicillium spp., it was difficult to discriminate species in these genera on the basis of the nucleotide sequences of the target region Aoki, 2009 .…”