Neophysopella tropicalis Y. Ono, S. Chatasiri, Pota & Okane

Tabe, Affoussatou, Aime, M. Catherine, Yorou, Nourou Soulemane & Piepenbring, Meike, 2022, New records and data on rust fungi (Pucciniales, Basidiomycota) in Benin, Phytotaxa 548 (2), pp. 127-145 : 132-133

Neophysopella tropicalis Y. Ono, S. Chatasiri, Pota & Okane , in Ono et al., Mycol. Progr. 19: 914 (2020)

Figure 4 .

Uredinia hypophyllous, erumpent, individual or in groups, yellow-orange, associated with angular, necrotic spots on the upper side of the leaves, urediniospores surrounded by paraphyses. Urediniospores ellipsoidal to broadly ellipsoidal, sometimes globular, (18–)19–23(–26) × 14–17(–20) µm (n = 30), densely and finely echinulate, spines approx. 1 µm high, pale yellow to hyaline, wall 1–2 µm thick, germ pores not observed. Paraphyses cylindrical, straight or sometimes curved, 24–60 × 8–16 µm (n = 15), wall light brown, 2–4 µm thick, sometimes thicker at the apex, smooth. Telia not observed.

A 28S rDNA sequence obtained from the specimen from Benin presents 99% (896/901) sequence identity with previously published sequences of N. tropicalis (e.g. LC534274 , Ono et al. 2020).

Specimen examined: — Uredinia on Vitis sp. cult.: BENIN. Borgou: Parakou, Atagara , Songhaï center, elev. 372 m, 9°41’ N, 2°69’ E, 2 August 2017, M. Piepenbring and participants of Summer School 2017, MP5348 ( UNIPAR), GenBank Acc. no. LSU: OL437024 .

Host and distribution in Benin: —Uredinia on Vitis sp. cult. ( Vitaceae ), Central Benin.

Host species:—Primary host species: cultivars derived from Vitis vinifera L. and V. labrusca L.; Vitaceae . Secondary host species: not known ( Ono et al. 2020).

Distribution: —Africa [ Benin (this study)], Asia, Oceania, Central America, North America, Southern America ( Ono et al. 2020).

Comments: — N. tropicalis is reported here for the first time for Benin and for the first time for Africa. Characteristics of the specimens from Benin were compared to those described for N. meliosmae-myrianthae (Henn. & Shirai) Jing X. Ji & Kakish. ( Hennen et al. 2005; Ono et al. 2012), N. montana (Y. Ono & Chatasiri) Jing X. Ji & Kakish. ( Ono et al. 2012) , and N. tropicalis ( Ono et al. 2020) from other countries. According to Ono et al. (2020), the longest paraphyses of N. tropicalis are shorter (23–67 µm) than those of N. meliosmae-myrianthae (19–79 µm) and N. montana (22–80 μm), and the walls of the paraphyses are only up to 4 µm thick in N. tropicalis in contrast to values of 5 µm and higher in the other two species. These characteristics indicate that the specimen found in Benin represents N. tropicalis . They are, however, rather difficult to assess.

Figures

FIGURE 4. Neophysopella tropicalis on Vitis sp. cult. (MP5348). A Infected leaf seen from above B the same leaf seen from below, with hypophyllous uredinia C urediniospores drawn in optical sections except one spore D apical parts of paraphyses. Scale bars: 10 µm.