Cladochytrium replicatum JEL0714. Two septate turbinate swellings (center; oriented vertically), definitive structures of Cladochytrium rhizomycelium, in Elodea from original collection. Image provided by Joyce E. Longcore.

Cladochytrium replicatum (JEL0714) is a polycentric chytrid species with septate turbinate swellings throughout the rhizomycelium. This culture was isolated by Joyce E. Longcore on onion skin bait from a collection of water and aquatic plant detritus taken at Cook’s Point on Pushaw Lake, Old Town, Maine, USA on September 25, 2011. The genus is the type of the family Cladochytriaceae, which is the type of the order Cladochytriales (Mozley-Standridge et al. 2009). When the Cladochytriales was described, Cladochytrium was one of the few monophyletic genera in the order, based on a confluence of morphological and molecular characters, but recent investigations have proven this hypothesis of monophyly to be false. Jerônimo et al. 2015 cultured an isolate fitting the description of the type of the genus, C. tenue, and further phylogenetic study (Powell et al. 2018) found this culture to be a member of the Chytridiales, though no taxonomic revisions have been made to date. However, this once again illustrates that morphological convergence between unrelated taxa can make morphology alone an untrustworthy indicator at phylogenetic relatedness. Cladochytrium replicatum isolate JEL0714 is cryopreserved at the Collection of Zoosporic Eufungi at the University of Michigan (CZEUM) and will be incorporated into a phylogenomic analysis of zoosporic fungi. Genomic investigations will lead to insight on the convergent evolution of polycentricity within multiple lineages of the flagellated Fungi.

References:
Jerônimo GH, de Jesus AL, Marano AV, James TY, de Souza JI, Rocha SCO, Pires-Zottarelli CLA. 2015. Diversity of Blastocladiomycota and Chytridiomycota from Parque Estadual da Ilha do Cardosa, Cananeia, SP, Brazil. Hoehnea 42:135–163.

Mozley-Standridge SE, Letcher PM, Longcore JE, Porter D, Simmons DR. 2009. Cladochytriales – a new order in Chytridiomycota. Mycological Research 113:498–507.

Powell MJ, Letcher PM, Longcore JE, Blackwell WH. 2018. Zopfochytrium is a new genus in the Chytridiales with distinct zoospore ultrastructure. Fungal Biology 122:1041–1049.