ARS | Publication request: Morphological plasticity in Cladosporium sphaerospermum

Submitted to: Persoonia: Molecular Phylogeny and Evolution of Fungi
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: April 1, 2008
Publication Date: July 1, 2008
Citation: Dugan, F.M., Groenewald, J.Z., Crous, P.W., Braun, U. 2008. Morphological plasticity in Cladosporium sphaerospermum. Persoonia: Molecular Phylogeny and Evolution of Fungi 21:9-16.

Interpretive Summary: Cladosporium sphaerospermum is a common, cosmopolitan species in the genus Cladosporium, and is of environmental, industrial and clinical importance. Certain morphological characters of the conidia were especially prominent in strain NRRL 8131, a patent deposit from the ARS Culture Collection at the National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research, in Peoria. Examination of the strain, misidentified in the patent, prompted re-examination of type material of Cladosporium lignicola (the name applied in the patent), and also examination of morphological and molecular characters in the neotype strain for Cladosporium sphaerospermum. The morphological concept for C. sphaerospermum has been revised and broadened to accommodate the resultant data.

Technical Abstract: Cladosporium sphaerospermum, isolate NRRL 8131, referrenced in U.S. Patent 4,086,268 and in the patent colletion of the ARS Culture Collection, Peoria, Illinois as Cladosporium lignicolum (sic), was found to belong to Cladosporium sphaerospermum on molecular criteria. Re-examination of type material of Cladosporium lignicola confirmed the opinion of Hughes that C. lignicola is a synonym of Cladosporium herbarum. Although conidia of NRRL 8131 are atypically large for C. sphaerospermum, another character well developed in this isolate (subrostrate conidiogenous loci on conidia and ramoconidia) was also present, albeit with lesser frequency, in the neotype of C. sphaerospermum. With regard to other isolates of C. sphaerospermum, NRRL 8131 seems unique only with regard to the occasional presence of pyriform, sometimes transversely septate, "beaked" conidia ("alternarioid" conidia). The morphological limits of C. sphaerospermum are revised, accordingly.