Curvularia boeremae (A.S. Patil & V.G. Rao) Y.P. Tan & R.G. Shivas

Tan, Yu Pei, Crous, Pedro W. & Shivas, Roger G., 2018, Cryptic species of Curvularia in the culture collection of the Queensland Plant Pathology Herbarium, MycoKeys 35, pp. 1-25 : 1

Curvularia boeremae (A.S. Patil & V.G. Rao) Y.P. Tan & R.G. Shivas comb. nov. Fig. 2 J–L

Basionym.

Drechslera boeremae A.S. Patil & V.G. Rao, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 42: 129 (1976).

Description.

Colonies on PDA approx. 3 cm diam. after 7 d at 25 °C, surface funiculose, margin fimbriate, olivaceous green to citrine, velutinous with aerial mycelium. Hyphae subhyaline, smooth to asperulate, branched, septate, 2-3 µm in width. Conidiophores straight to flexuous, slightly geniculate towards apex, uniformly subhyaline to pale brown, smooth, septate, up to 110 µm long, 4 µm wide. Conidiogenous cells integrated, terminal or intercalary, with sympodial proliferation, pale brown to brown, smooth, mono- or polytretic, with darkened scars. Conidia broadly ellipsoidal to oval, brown to dark brown, smooth, (42-) 46-52 (-55) × (17-) 20-23 (-25) µm, brown to dark brown, 4-6-distoseptate, hila protuberant, thickened and darkened, 2-3 µm wide.

Type.

India, Poona, from leaves of Portulaca oleracea , 28 Apr. 1970, A.S. Patil (holotype IMI 164633, includes ex-type culture), (isotype BRIP 13934, includes ex-type culture).

Notes.

Multilocus phylogenetic analyses placed the ex-type culture of D. boeremae within the clade that includes C. lunata , the type species of the genus (Fig. 1). Curvularia boeremae differs from C. neoindica in one locus (98% identities in gapdh). Furthermore, C. boeremae has shorter conidia than C. neoindica (27-65 µm, Manamgoda et al. 2014). Sivanesan’s (1987) synonymy of Drechslera boeremae with Bipolaris indica was based on similar conidial morphology and is not supported by the phylogenetic analyses in this study.

Curvularia boeremae is only known from the type specimen on P. oleraceae and has not been recorded in Australia. Curvularia portulacae is the only other species recorded on P. oleraceae ( Farr and Rossman 2018). Curvularia boeremae is morphologically distinct from C. portulacae , which has comparatively long, cylindrical conidia (average 110 × 13 µm, Rader 1948).