Melanomma populicola Crous & R. K. Schumach
Creators: name: Tennakoon, Danushka S.
name: Thambugala, Kasun M.
name: de Silva, Nimali I.
name: Song, Hai-Yan
name: Suwannarach, Nakarin
name: Chen, Fu-Sheng
name: Hu, Dian-Ming
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Fungi
Ascomycota
Dothideomycetes
Pleosporales
Melanommataceae
Melanomma
Melanomma populicola

description: Melanomma populicola Crous & R. K. Schumach, Fungal Systematics and Evolution 6: 201 (2020)
Fig. 8
Basionym.
Aposphaeria populina Died., Krypt. - Fl. Brandenburg (Leipzig) 9: 206 (1912).
Synonym.
Melanomma populinum (Died.) Phukhams. & K. D. Hyde [as ‘ populina ’], Fungal Diversity 83: 49. 2017.
Description.
Saprobic on dead stem of Fagus sylvatica L. (Fagaceae). Sexual morph: Ascomata 130–200 × 200–300 µm (x ̄ = 150 × 255 μm, n = 15), solitary or scattered, immersed, erumpent through host surface, black, multi-loculate, globose to subglobose, ostiolate. Peridium 10–15 μm wide, thick-walled, carbonaceous, composed of several layers of light brown to dark brown pseudoparenchymatous cells, cells towards the inside hyaline, arranged in a textura angularis, fusing at the outside indistinguishable from the host tissues. Hamathecium comprising numerous, 1–2 µm wide, hyaline, septate, filiform pseudoparaphyses. Asci 80–110 × 6–8 μm (x ̄ = 96 × 7 μm, n = 20), 8 - spored, bitunicate, fissitunicate, cylindrical, apically rounded, short pedicellate with furcate end, with an indistinct ocular chamber. Ascospores 13–17 × 4–5.2 μm (x ̄ = 15 × 4.8 μm, n = 35), overlapping, 1–2 - seriate, ellipsoid, initially hyaline, becoming light brown at maturity, 3 - septate, straight to slightly curved, slightly constricted at the septa, guttulate, smooth-walled. Asexual morph: See Crous et al. (2020).
Material examined.
China, Kunming, on a dead stem of Fagus sylvatica (Fagaceae), 25 July 2016, D. S. Tennakoon, KDS 25 (HFJAU 10335).
Known hosts.
Populus canadensis, Picea abies, Quercus sp., Sorbus aucuparia (Crous et al. 2020; this study).
Known distribution.
China, Germany, The Netherlands (Crous et al. 2020; this study).
Notes.
Melanomma populicola was introduced by Diedicke (1912) as Aposphaeria populina, which was a phoma-like species collected from Populus canadensis. An epitype for A. populina was established by De Gruyter et al. (2013). Tibpromma et al. (2017) synonymised A. populina under Melanomma and erected as M. populina. Subsequently, this was validated by Crous et al. (2020) and erected as M. populicola. Morphological characteristics of our collection (HFJAU 10335) fit well with the M. populicola in having black, globose to subglobose ascomata, cylindrical, apically rounded asci and ellipsoid, 3 - septate, light brown ascospores. In addition, there are overlapping size ranges of asci (80–110 × 6–8 μm vs. 91–106 × 6.5–7.5 μm) and ascospores (13–17 × 4–5.2 μm vs. 15.1 × 5 μm) (Crous et al. 2020). Multi-gene phylogeny also shows that our collection groups with M. populicola isolates in a 99 % ML and 0.99 BYPP supported clade. Therefore, we introduce our collections as a new host record of M. populicola from Fagus sylvatica.
description: Published as part of Tennakoon, Danushka S., Thambugala, Kasun M., de Silva, Nimali I., Song, Hai-Yan, Suwannarach, Nakarin, Chen, Fu-Sheng & Hu, Dian-Ming, 2024, An overview of Melanommataceae (Pleosporales, Dothideomycetes): Current insight into the host associations and geographical distribution with some interesting novel additions from plant litter, pp. 43-96 in MycoKeys 106 on pages 43-96, DOI: 10.3897/mycokeys.106.125044