Botryosphaeriaceae
Botryosphaeriaceae Theiss. & Syd. [as 'Botryosphaeriacae'], Annls mycol. 16(1/2): 16 (1918)
Index Fungorum number: IF 80530; Facesoffungi number: FoF 00116, 279 species.
Endophytic, pathogenic and saprobic on a wide range of hosts worldwide. Sexual morph: Ascomata uniloculate, solitary or clustered, becoming fully or partially erumpent with maturity, wall multi-layered, dark brown, infrequently embedded in stromatic tissues. Asci 8-spored, bitunicate, fissitunicate, with well-developed ocular chamber, thick endotunica, short pedicellate, clavate. Pseudoparaphyses intermixed with asci, hyaline, septate, frequently constricted at septa, hyphae-like, branched or not, deliquescing with maturity. Ascospores 2–3-seriate, fusoid to ellipsoid or ovoid, hyaline or pigmented, smooth to verruculose, septate or not, mucoid sheath mostly absent (photoplates of sexual characters can be seen in Phillips et al. 2013, 2019). Asexual morph: Coelomycetous. Conidiomata uni or rarely multiloculate, pycnidial, infrequently embedded in stromatic tissue. Conidiophores mostly reduced to conidiogenous cells. Conidiogenous cells hyaline, phialidic, proliferating percurrently or internally giving rise to periclinal thickenings, or proliferating percurrently forming annelations, without collarettes. Conidia hyaline or pigmented, aseptate or one or multi-septate, sometimes muriform, smooth or striate, thin- or thick-walled, without mucoid sheaths or appendages. Spermatogonia similar to conidiomata in anatomy. Spermatogenous cells ampulliform to lageniform or subcylindrical, hyaline smooth, phialidic. Spermatia developing in conidiomata or spermatogonia, hyaline, smooth, granular, subcylindrical or dumbbell-shaped, with rounded ends. (Liu et al. 2012; Slippers et al. 2013; Phillips et al. 2013).
Type: Botryosphaeria Ces. & De Not.
Notes: Botryosphaeriaceae was introduced by Theissen and Sydow (1918b) for three genera, Botryosphaeria, Phaeobotryon and Dibotryon. Over decades of taxonomic revisions and updates based on morphology, the family has became increasingly complex. However, based on LSU sequence data Crous et al. (2006a) revealed 10 lineages within Botryosphaeriaceae, which they considered to represent individual genera. Phillips et al. (2008) defined, introduced and reinstated a further five genera in Botryosphaeriaceae. Aplosporella was shown to reside in Botryosphaeriaceae by Damm et al. (2007). Endomelanconiopsis was assigned to this family by Rojas et al. (2008) while Phillips and Alves (2009) considered that Melanopsis is another genus in Botryosphaeriaceae. Two new genera (Botryobambusa Phook. et al. and Cophinforma Doilom et al.) were introduced by Liu et al. (2012). Phillips et al. (2013) resolved Botryosphaeriaceae into 17 genera and 110 species known from culture. Thereafter six new genera and 85 new species/species combinations have been introduced (Dissanayake et al. 2017). According to a recent study by Phillips et al. (2019) currently 22 genera are accepted in Botryosphaeriaceae. In earlier studies Dothiorella and Spencermartinsia were regarded as two separate genera in the family (Phillips et al. 2008, 2013). However, Yang et al. (2016) synonymized Spencermartinsia under Dothiorella Sacc. These two genera are morphologically distinguishable only in sexual morphs by the hyaline apiculi in Spencermartinsia. So far, these characters are reported only in S. viticola but no other species in this genus have been observed with asexual morphs. Furthermore, phylogenetic distance is also small between these two genera. Therefore, it is accepted that Spencermartinsia is a synonym of Dothiorella. Phyllostictaceae was re-instated for Phyllosticta (Wikee et al. 2013a). Another three families were introduced in Botryosphaeriales by Slippers et al. (2013), namely Saccharataceae for Saccharata, Aplosporellaceae for Aplosporella and Melanopsaceae for Melanops Nitschke ex Fuckel. Wyka and Broders (2016) introduced Septorioideaceae for Septorioides Quaedvl. et al. while Yang et al. (2017) raised Endomelanconiopsis and Pseudofusicoccum Mohali et al. to familial status as Endomelanconiopsidaceae and Pseudofusicoccaceae respectively. Taking into account morphology, phylogeny and evolutionary divergence times, Phillips et al. (2019) synonymised Endomelanconiopsidaceae with Botryosphaeriaceae, Pseudofusicoccaceae with Phyllostictaceae, and Septorioideaceae with Saccharataceae. In addition to that, genus Pilgeriella which fit within Botryosphaeriaceae, but do not have cultures or DNA (Wijayawardene et al. 2017a). Therefore, this genus was kept in incertae sedis in Botryosphaeriales.