Journal of Threatened
Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 February 2023 | 15(2): 22761–22763
ISSN 0974-7907
(Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print)
https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.7636.15.2.22761-22763
#7636 | Received 29
August 2021 | Finally accepted 30 January 2023
First report of Meliola panici on Ottochloa nodosa (Kunth)
Dandy (Poaceae)
Gopinathan Nair Gokul 1 & Jacob Thomas 2
1 Department of Botany, Catholicate
College, Makkamkunnu, Pathanamthitta,
Kerala 689645, India.
2 Department of Botany, Mar Thoma College, Tiruvalla 689103,
Kerala, India.
1 gogulgn@gmail.com, 2 jacobnthomas@gmail.com
(corresponding author)
Editor: Anonymity
requested. Date of publication:
26 February 2023 (online & print)
Citation: Gokul, G.N. & J. Thomas (2023). First report of Meliola panici on Ottochloa nodosa (Kunth)
Dandy (Poaceae). Journal of Threatened Taxa 15(2): 22761–22763. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.7636.15.2.22761-22763
Copyright: © Gokul & Thomas 2023. Creative Commons Attribution
4.0 International License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproduction, and
distribution of this article in any medium by providing adequate credit to the
author(s) and the source of publication.
Funding: None.
Competing interests: The authors
declare no competing interests.
Acknowledgements: We thank the Department of
Botany, Catholicate College, Pathanamthitta
and Mar Thoma College, Tiruvalla
for providing facilities. Forest Department of Kerala is thankfully
acknowledged for granting permission to conduct the field study.
Black mildews are ectoparasites
forming black colonies on surface of leaves, tender stem, and fruits of host
plants (Hansford 1961; Hosagoudar 1996, 2008, 2013; Hongsanan et al. 2015). These fungi are minor plant
pathogens and their distribution is reported mostly from tropical parts of the
world (Hansford 1961; Hosagoudar 1996, 2008, 2013;
Saenz & Taylor 1999; Hongsanan et al. 2015). Black
Mildews are host specific and have narrow host range that rarely extend
to more than one host family (Zeng et al. 2017). Meliolales
are the largest order of black mildew fungi represented by 3,064 epithets
listed in Index Fungorum (Jayawardena et al. 2020).
This order comprises two families Armatellaceae and Meliolaceae (Hosagoudar 2013; Hongsanan et al. 2015; Zeng et al. 2017; Hyde et al.
2020). Meliola is the type genus of the family
Meliolaceae. The description of the species Meliola panici
causing black mildew disease on Ottochloa
nodosa (Kunth) Dandy is included in this report.
The infected plants were
collected from the Konni Forest Division located in the southern part of the
Western Ghats in peninsular India. Infection patterns and other characteristics
of colonies were noted during collection and photographs were taken. The
infected leaves were collected in clean polythene bags and separate field
numbers were given to collections from different localities. From the fresh
samples, scrapes of surface mycelia taken were treated with 10% KOH for 30
minutes and then mounted in lactophenol in cotton blue. Appropriately dried
specimens were used to prepare permanent slides of colonies (Hosagoudar & Kapoor 1985).
Meliola panici Earle, Muchlenbergia
1: 12, 1901; Hansf., Sydowia
Beih. 2: 745, 1961; Gupta & Gupta, Indian Phytopath. 58: 390, 1985; Hosag.
& Goos, Mycotaxon 42:
136, 1991; Hosag., Meliolales
of India, p. 276, 1996; Hosag. & Sabeena, J. Threat. Taxa 6(7): 5971, 2014. (Image 1).
Materials examined: On leaves of Ottochloa nodosa (Kunth)
Dandy (Poaceae) from Konni Forest Division, Pathanamthitta District, Kerala, India, 9.22810N,
76.81710E, 10 February 2019, coll. Gokul G. Nair, MTCHT 271.
Colonies amphigenous,
subdense, up to 3 mm in diameter. Mycelium straight
to flexuous, branching opposite to irregular at acute to wide angles, loosely
reticulate, cells 26–32 × 4–8 µm. Appressoria alternate, straight to curved,
antrorse to spreading, 14–20 µm long; stalk cells cylindrical to cuneate, 3–8
µm long; head cells ovate, globose, entire, angular to sublobate,
10–15 × 9–11 µm. Phialides borne on a separate mycelial branch, alternate to
opposite, ampulliform, 14–20 × 5–7µm. Mycelial setae numerous, straight,
simple, acute to obtuse at the tip, up to 550 µm long. Perithecia mostly
grouped, verrucose, up to 158 µm in diameter; ascospores oblong cylindrical,
4-septate, slightly constricted at the septa, 33–42 × 10–14 µm.
Single species of Asteridiella and 12 species of Meliola
were reported infecting members of Poaceae (Hansford
1961). Now 28 species of Meliola are known to
associate with 39 host plants of the family Poaceae (Hosagoudar 2008, 2013; Hosagoudar
& Sabeena 2014; Zeng et al. 2017). Meliola panici and
its varieties were reported infecting eight species, namely, Vetiveria
zizanioides (L.) Nash, Cyrtococcum
longipes (Wight & Arn.
ex Hook.f.) A.Camus,
Olyra latifolia L.,
Acroceras munroanum
(Balansa) Henrard (Panicum
latifolium), Setaria
palmifolia (Koenig) Stapf,
Stipa dregeana
Steud., Uniola virgata (Poir.) Griseb., and an unidentified species of Panicum (Zeng
et al. 2017). Based on morphological characteristics and Beeli digital formulae (3111.4223) the present collection
is identified as Meliola panici.
This is the first report of the pathogen growing as a biotrophic associate
on Ottochloa nodosa.
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