IMA Fungus 2(2): 127-133, doi: 10.5598/imafungus.2011.02.02.03
What is Scirrhia?
expand article infoPedro Crous‡, Andrew M. Minnis§, Olinto L. Pereira|, Acelino C. Alfenas, Rafael F. Alfenas|, Amy Y. Rossman#, Johannes Z. Groenewald¤
‡ Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute, Utrecht, Netherlands§ One Gifford Pincheot Dr., Center for Forest Mycology Research, Northern Research Station, USDA-U.S. Forest Service, Madison| Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Departemento de Fitopatologia, Viçosa, Brazil¶ Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Department of Plant Pathology, Viçosa, Brazil# USDA-ARS, Systematic Mycology & Microbiology Laboratory, Beltsville¤ CBS-KNAW Fungal Biodiversity Centre, Utrecht
© Pedro Crous, Andrew Minnis, Olinto Pereira, Acelino Alfenas, Rafael Alfenas, Amy Rossman, Johannes Groenewald.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY-NC 4.0), which permits to copy and distribute the article for non-commercial purposes, provided that the article is not altered or modified and the original author and source are credited.
Citation: Crous P, Minnis AM, Pereira OL, Alfenas AC, Alfenas RF, Rossman AY, Groenewald JZ (2011) What is Scirrhia?. IMA Fungus 2(2): 127-133. https://doi.org/10.5598/imafungus.2011.02.02.03
Open Access
Abstract
The ascomycetous genus Scirrhia is presently treated as a member of Dothideomycetidae, though uncertainty remains as to which family it belongs in Capnodiales, Ascomycota. Recent collections on stems of a fern, Pteridium aquilinum (Dennstaedtiaceae) in Brazil, led to the discovery of a new species of Scirrhia, described here as S. brasiliensis. Based on DNA sequence data of the nuclear ribosomal DNA (LSU), Scirrhia is revealed to represent a member of Dothideomycetes, Capnodiales, Mycosphaerellaceae. Scirrhia is the first confirmed genus in Mycosphaerellaceae to have well developed pseudoparaphyses and a prominent hypostroma in which ascomata are arranged in parallel rows. Given the extremely slow growth rate and difficulty in obtaining cultures of S. brasiliensis on various growth media, it appears that Scirrhia represents a genus of potentially obligate plant pathogens within Mycosphaerellaceae.
Keywords
Brazil, Capnodiales, Dothideomycetes, ITS, LSU, Mycosphaerellaceae, Pteridium, systematics