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First published online June 12, 2009; doi:10.3732/ajb.0900010 American Journal of Botany 96: 1281-1288 (2009) © 2009 Botanical Society of America, Inc.

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Atradidymella muscivora gen. et sp. nov. (Pleosporales) and its anamorph Phoma muscivora sp. nov.: A new pleomorphic pathogen of boreal bryophytes¹

Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2E9, Canada

ABSTRACT

During a survey of bryophilous fungi from boreal and montane habitats, 12 isolates of a hitherto unknown plant pathogenic member of the Pleosporales were recovered from Aulacomnium palustre, Hylocomium splendens, and Polytrichum juniperinum, and described as Atradidymella muscivora gen. et sp. nov. Atradidymella is characterized by minute, unilocular, setose pseudothecia having 2–3 wall layers; brown, fusiform, 1-septate ascospores; and a Phoma anamorph. The genus is distinguished from all other pleosporalean genera with brown, fusiform ascospores on the basis of ascospore and pseudothecium morphology and a highly reduced stroma that is localized within a single host cell. Atradidymella muscivora is distinguished by its minute pseudothecia (<115 µm) and ascospores that are slightly allantoid and constricted at the septum with the upper cell often wider than the lower. Its anamorph, Phoma muscivora sp. nov., is morphologically distinguishable from P. herbarum in having smaller conidia. Parsimony analysis of the ITS rDNA region indicates A. muscivora has affinities to the Phoma-Ascochyta-Didymella clade that is sister to the Phaeosphaeriaceae within the Pleosporales.

Key Words: Atradidymella muscivora • bryophilous • pathogenesis • stroma development • Phoma herbarum, Pleosporales

Received for publication 9 January 2009. Accepted for publication 20 April 2009.

FOOTNOTES

¹ The authors thank Dr. M. Hertwig-Jaksch for providing the Latin diagnosis and Dr. A. Tsuneda for providing SEM micrographs of ascospores and conidia. This work was supported by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Canadian Graduate Scholarship (CGS) (master’s level), a NSERC-CGS (doctoral level), an Alberta Ingenuity Fund (AIF) Incentive Award, and an Alberta Conservation Association (ACA) Grant in Biodiversity to M.L.D. and a NSERC Discovery Grant to R.S.C.

² Author for correspondence (e-mail: marie.davey{at}umb.no); present address: Department of Ecology and Natural Resource Management, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Postboks 5003, 1432 Ås, Norway; and Molecular Evolution Research Group, Department of Biology, University of Oslo, Postboks 1066 Blindern, N-0316 Oslo, Norway

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