Sakireeta madreeya Subram. & K. Ramakr.

Crous, Pedro W., Müller, Michael M., Sánchez, Romina M., Giordano, Lucrecia, Bianchinotti, M. Virginia, Anderson, Freda E. & Groenewald, Johannes Z., 2015, Resolving Tiarosporella spp. allied to Botryosphaeriaceae and Phacidiaceae, Phytotaxa 202 (2), pp. 73-93 : 88-89

Sakireeta madreeya Subram. & K. Ramakr. , Journal of the Indian Botanical Society 36: 84 (1957); Fig. 7

Synonym: Tiarosporella madreeya (Subram. & K. Ramakr.) Nag Raj, Canadian Journal of Botany 51: 2470 (1974) [1973]

Foliicolous. Conidiomata pycnidial, aggregated, immersed, depressed, globose, mostly irregularly multilocular in a stroma, dark brown, ostiolate; wall of 3–6 layers of brown textura angularis. Conidiophores reduced to conidiogenous cells. Conidiogenous cells hyaline, smooth, lining the inner cavity, subcylindrical to ampulliform, 4–7 × 3–5 μm; conidiogenesis holoblastic, lacking phialides with percurrent proliferation or periclinal thickening. Conidia (15–)18– 25(–30) × (4–)5–6(–7) μm, subcylindrical to clavate or narrowly ellipsoid, apex obtuse, base truncate, aseptate, smooth, hyaline, granular, with an apical cone-shaped appendage which splits into up to four tentaculiform undulate appendages.

Culture characteristics:— Colonies spreading, flat, with moderate, cottony aerial mycelium, and feathery margins. On MEA surface dirty white, reverse olivaceous-black. On OA surface olivaceous-grey.

Specimens examined:— INDIA. Madras , Choolai, on dead culm of Aristida setacea , 27 Sept. 1951, K. Ramakrishnan (holotype MUBL 631 ) ; Kurukshetra Univ., undetermined grass host, July 1976, R. S. Mehrotra, CBS H-21854, culture CBS 532.76 .

Notes:— The culture originally deposited as Tiarosporella madreeya from India (CBS 532.76) closely corresponds with the morphology of the type specimen, and therefore we regard it as authentic. However, as the host was never stipulated, and the laboratory records of Prof. R.S. Mehrotra (communicated via Dr K.C. Rajeshkumar) indicate that it was collected as a saprobe from grasses buried in soil for decomposition. As it is impossible to accurately identify the host, we thus refrain from designating it as epitype for the genus.

Of interest is that the type of Tiarosporella , T. paludosa , has solitary unilocular conidiomata, whereas those of Sakireeta madreeya are aggregated in a stroma, and plurilocular. Furthermore, T. paludosa has percurrently proliferating conidiogenous cells, whereas those of Sakireeta madreeya are holoblastic. Once more species of these two genera have been collected and subjected to DNA analysis to confirm their generic placement, it will be possible to confirm if these characters are also valuable at the generic level in distinguishing Tiarosporella from Sakireeta .

Tiarosporella Höhn., Berichte der Deutschen Botanischen Gesellschaft 37: 159 (1919)

Foliicolous, rarely caulicolous. Conidiomata pycnidial, separate, immersed, globose to depressed, unilocular, dark brown, with central substomatal ostiole; wall of brown textura angularis. Conidiophores reduced to conidiogenous cells lining the inner cavity. Conidiogenous cells hyaline, smooth, subcylindrical to ampulliform, encased in mucus, proliferating percurrently near the apex. Conidia hyaline, smooth, solitary, subcylindrical to subclavate, apex subobtuse, base truncate, rarely with marginal frill, aseptate, bearing 2–4 tentaculiform, undulate apical mucoid appendages. The conidium is initially covered in a mucoid sheath, which splits longitudinally, resulting in apical tentaculiform appendages.

Type species:— Tiarosporella paludosa (Sacc. & Fiori ex P. Syd.) Höhn.

Figures

FIGURE 7. Sakireeta madreeya (CBS 532.76). A. Conidiomata on PNA. B–D. Conidiogenous cells. E, F. Conidia. Scale bars: A = 250 μm, all others = 10 μm.