Black conidial cirrhus oozing from pycnidium; vertical section through subepidermal pycnidium; brown, verruculose conidia.

Aplosporella prunicola

Type: South Africa, Limpopo Province, Modimolle, bark of Prunus persica var. nucipersica, ex-holotype strain CBS 121167.

Aplosporella prunicola is associated with dead branches of nectarine (Prunus persica var. nucipersica) in South Africa and was recently discovered to belong to the Botryosphaeriaceae (Dothidiomycetes, Ascomycota), an important complex of canker pathogens (Damm et al. 2007). Aplosporella is characterised by multilocular conidiomata opening by a single ostiole, large, aseptate, verrucose, brown conidia, and the presence of prominent paraphyses. The fungus forms fast-growing, grey-olivaceous cultures on potato-dextrose agar medium.

Details pertaining to the pathogenicity and host specificity of Aplosporella prunicola remain to be elucidated. Another species, A. yalgorensis, which was recently described from Eucalyptus gomphocephala and Acacia cochlearis in Western Australia, was found to be non-pathogenic to its hosts. A large number of Aplosporella species, none of which have been studied on molecular basis, were also found on various woody hosts in India (Pande & Rao 1995).

Literature

Damm U, Fourie PH, Crous PW, 2007. Aplosporella prunicola, a novel species of anamorphic Botryosphaeriaceae. Fungal Diversity 27: 35–43.

Pande A, Rao VG, 1995. The genus Aplosporella Speg. (= Haplosporella Speg.) (Coelomycetes) from India. Nova Hedwigia 60: 79–117.

Taylor K, Barber PA, St J Hardy GE, Burgess TI (2009). Botryosphaeriaceae from tuart (Eucalyptus gomphocephala) woodland, including descriptions of four new species. Mycological Research 113: 337–353.