Pteridopassalora C. Nakash. & Crous, in Chen et al., Stud. Mycol. 101: 548 (2022)
Index Fungorum Number: IF 841508; Facesoffungi Number: FoF 15735
Etymology – Derived from Passalora and pteridophyte.
Stromata small to well-developed. Conidiophores emerging from stromata or superficial hyphae, cylindrical, smooth to rough. Conidiogenous cells integrated to terminal on conidiophore, with unthickened or slightly thickened loci. Conidia solitary, variable in shape, cylindrical, filamentous to narrowly-obclavate, multi-septate, truncate and unthickened hilum at the base. Sexual morph not observed.
Cultural characteristics – Colonies growing slowly; on PDA surface smoke grey with patches of grey olivaceous, iron grey in reverse; on MEA pale olivaceous grey (surface), iron grey in reverse; on OA olivaceous grey with patches of pale olivaceous grey.
Type species – Pteridopassalora nephrolepidicola (Crous & R.G. Shivas) C. Nakash. & Crous. Holotype and ex-type culture: CBS H-20492, CBS 128211 = CPC 17049, CPC 17050.
DNA barcodes (genus) – LSU and rpb2.
Optimal media and cultivation conditions – on CMA, sporulation of the asexual morph as in situ are observed (Kirschner & Wang 2015).
Distribution – Australia, mainland China and Taiwan Island.
Hosts – Known only from the pteridophytes, Nephrolepis falcata and Lygodium japonicum.
Disease symptoms – Leaf spots and leaf blight.
Notes – The unthickened or slightly thickened conidiogenous loci of Pteridopassalora are also seen in Passalora s. lat. and Pseudocercospora. The unresolved taxonomic position of the basionym Pseudocercospora nephrolepidicola has been discussed before (Kirschner & Wang 2015, Nakashima et al. 2016). Phylogenetic analysis using the combined matrix composed of LSU+ITS+RPB2 regions, which are barcodes for Passalora s. lat. (Videira et al. 2017), showed Pseudocercospora nephrolepidicola warranted transfer to a new genus, Pteridopassalora. Many species of Passalora and Pseudocercospora have been reported on ferns in recent years (Crous et al. 2010, Braun et al. 2013, Kirschner & Liu 2014, Kirschner & Wang 2015, Guatimosim et al. 2016, Nakashima et al. 2016), have morphological characteristics that resemble those of Pteridopassalora. Further studies are required to clarify their molecular phylogeny.