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Colletotrichum: complex species or species ... - CBS - KNAW

Colletotrichum: complex species or species ... - CBS - KNAW

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Cannon et al.as did those f<strong>or</strong> <strong>Colletotrichum</strong> gloeosp<strong>or</strong>ioides, i.e. assumed hostspecificity. Von Arx & Müller provided a long list of 117 synonymsbelonging to at least 42 independent taxa (they did not distinguishbetween homotypic synonyms and taxa in different genera with thesame epithet). As with previous w<strong>or</strong>k on C. gloeosp<strong>or</strong>ioides, thecontribution of Von Arx & Müller provided a valuable foundationf<strong>or</strong> later investigations. Subsequent research has identified furtherdistinct Glomerella taxa, and currently around 30 <strong>species</strong> of<strong>Colletotrichum</strong> are known to have (<strong>or</strong> have at least been claimed tohave) Glomerella sexual m<strong>or</strong>phs. They are listed in Table 2.There has been little m<strong>or</strong>phology-based comparison of thesexual taxa, and differential characters cited by researchers seemrestricted to ascosp<strong>or</strong>e shape and size, with individual taxa showingwide variation and exhibiting overlapping ranges. F<strong>or</strong> example,Lehman & Wolf (1926) described the ascosp<strong>or</strong>es of Glomerellaglycines as ranging between 13 and 43 µm (though chiefly19–28 µm) in length. Elsewhere, von Arx & Müller (1954) gavemeasurements f<strong>or</strong> Ga. cingulata of 9–30 × 3–8 µm (mostly 12–24× 4–7 µm). Comparative study has certainly been compromised bythe excessively wide <strong>species</strong> concept f<strong>or</strong> Ga. cingulata. However,the ascosp<strong>or</strong>es of Ga. tucumanensis were described as larger thanthe n<strong>or</strong>m f<strong>or</strong> Ga. cingulata by von Arx & Müller (1954). Guerber& C<strong>or</strong>rell (2001) established that ascosp<strong>or</strong>es of Ga. acutata weresmaller and somewhat less strongly pointed than those of Ga.cingulata, but qualified their conclusions as the strains studiedof the latter <strong>species</strong> were too few to establish clear boundariesbetween the two taxa based on these criteria. Future study mayidentify further diagnostic m<strong>or</strong>phology-based characters f<strong>or</strong> thesexual m<strong>or</strong>ph of <strong>Colletotrichum</strong>, particularly when viewed in light ofmodern phylogenetic <strong>species</strong> concepts.Assessment of hist<strong>or</strong>ical asexual-sexual connections in<strong>Colletotrichum</strong> is very problematic. Many of the claimed links are notbased on authentic material, thereby casting doubt on the identitiesof both m<strong>or</strong>phs. Some are based on little m<strong>or</strong>e than juxtapositionon diseased plant samples. Even when the connections are wellresearchedand use c<strong>or</strong>rectly identified material (f<strong>or</strong> the time),the identity of the holom<strong>or</strong>ph may not be easy to establish usingmodern phylogenetic methods. Some of the inf<strong>or</strong>mation in Table2 must theref<strong>or</strong>e be considered as m<strong>or</strong>e of hist<strong>or</strong>ic than scientificvalue.The substantial changes in <strong>Colletotrichum</strong> <strong>species</strong> delimitationmade possible by molecular systematic analysis mean that manyasexual-sexual connections need further study, and in most casesthe sexual names are not typified acc<strong>or</strong>ding to modern practice.From a nomenclatural perspective, the need f<strong>or</strong> this w<strong>or</strong>k is nowless critical as the requirement f<strong>or</strong> separate naming of asexual andsexual taxa has been abolished (Hawksw<strong>or</strong>th 2011). Nevertheless,the need to understand sexual recombination and productionin terms of biological strategy (and potentially also economicsignificance) at <strong>species</strong> and population level remains clear.Although currently available data are incomplete, it does appearthat some <strong>Colletotrichum</strong> clades have <strong>species</strong> that f<strong>or</strong>m sexualm<strong>or</strong>phs m<strong>or</strong>e readily than others. Those where sexual m<strong>or</strong>phsare generated frequently, measured in terms of the prop<strong>or</strong>tionof consituent <strong>species</strong> with known meiotic m<strong>or</strong>phs, include thegloeosp<strong>or</strong>ioides and boninense clades. To our knowledge, incontrast, there are no reliable rep<strong>or</strong>ts of a sexual m<strong>or</strong>ph from anytaxon within the truncatum clade. In other groups, such as thegraminicola clade, individual <strong>species</strong> are well known to producesexual m<strong>or</strong>phs (e.g. C. falcatum, C. graminicola), but others seemto f<strong>or</strong>m them rarely <strong>or</strong> not at all (Crouch and Beirn 2009). Matingseems to be rare in the <strong>or</strong>biculare clade, with only a small prop<strong>or</strong>tionof crosses between C. lindemuthianum strains producing fertileprogeny (Rodríguez-Guerra et al. 2005).The mechanisms of recombination and sexual production in<strong>Colletotrichum</strong> are still inadequately understood. Classical geneticresearch on mating systems in strains identified as Glomerellacingulata (e.g. Olive 1951, Wheeler 1954) indicated that bothhomothallic and heterothallic isolates exist, although their moderntaxonomic placement within the gloeosp<strong>or</strong>ioides clade is not known.Despite documented heterothallic behaviour, only one mating typeidiom<strong>or</strong>ph has been recovered from population-level screening ina number of studies (e.g. Chen et al. 2002, Du et al. 2005, Crouchet al. 2008).In a number of <strong>species</strong>, sexual production has only beendocumented in lab<strong>or</strong>at<strong>or</strong>y crosses (see Table 2), and the role ofmating in natural populations is unclear. Fertile sexual m<strong>or</strong>phs wereproduced resulting from what is now considered to be interspecifichybridisation of strains within the C. acutatum clade (Guerber &C<strong>or</strong>rell 2001, Damm et al. 2012a), and this phenomenon may bewidespread. Hybridisation between taxa within infrageneric cladesof fungi has been demonstrated bef<strong>or</strong>e, e.g. by O’Donnell et al.(2000) in the Fusarium graminearum <strong>complex</strong>, by Stukenbrocket al. (2012) in Zymosept<strong>or</strong>ia and by Turner et al. (2010, 2011)in Neurosp<strong>or</strong>a. In the Neurosp<strong>or</strong>a example, fertile progenywere produced from geographically isolated strains but not fromsympatric isolates, suggesting that reproductive barriers evolve ata local level and can be overcome following long-distance dispersalof conidia. Not all of the strains used to produce sexual m<strong>or</strong>phs inthe acutatum clade (Guerber & C<strong>or</strong>rell 2001) have been analysedusing multilocus sequence technology, so we cannot say whethersimilar mechanisms are operating in <strong>Colletotrichum</strong>.Mating-type gene sequences have been shown to be goodmarkers f<strong>or</strong> phylogenetic analysis. To date, they have been studiedin the acutatum, graminicola, gloeosp<strong>or</strong>ioides and <strong>or</strong>biculareclades (e.g. Du et al. 2005, García-Serrano et al. 2008, Marcelinoet al. 2008, Crouch et al. 2009, M<strong>or</strong>iwaki & Tsukiboshi 2009, Rojaset al. 2010).TYPIFICATIONCommunication of inf<strong>or</strong>mation relating to <strong>Colletotrichum</strong> <strong>species</strong>has been seriously compromised in the past by misidentification,misapplication of names and grossly differing <strong>species</strong> concepts.Many of these problems were caused by uncritical use of <strong>species</strong>names on the assumptions that (a) all <strong>species</strong> are host-specificand (b) that only one <strong>species</strong> of <strong>Colletotrichum</strong> (<strong>or</strong> at least onlyone <strong>species</strong> with similar gross m<strong>or</strong>phology) parasitises each hostgenus. Many older <strong>Colletotrichum</strong> names lack type specimens thatare suitable f<strong>or</strong> molecular analysis, and do not have authentic livingstrains preserved in culture collections. Because the nomenclaturalCode (now entitled the International Code of Nomenclature f<strong>or</strong>Algae, Fungi and Plants; Hawksw<strong>or</strong>th 2011) now allows f<strong>or</strong> thedesignation of epitypes, modern sequenceable collections can beused as substitutes f<strong>or</strong> the <strong>or</strong>iginal material. An epitype should havem<strong>or</strong>phological, cultural and pathological characteristics similar tothose described in the <strong>or</strong>iginal publication, <strong>or</strong>iginate from the samegeographical region and host, and preserve (where at all possible)application of the name in conc<strong>or</strong>d with modern usage (Cannon etal. 2008). Many currently used names of <strong>Colletotrichum</strong> now haveepitypes designated (e.g. Cannon et al. 2008, Than et al. 2008,Damm et al. 2009, 2012a, b, Su et al. 2011, Weir et al. 2012).192

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