Proposal to conserve the name Apioporthe corni (Aurantioporthe corni, Cryptodiaporthe corni) against Sphaeronaema aurantiacum and Myxosporium nitidum (Ascomycetes, Diaporthales)

Authors: ROSSMAN, AMY - Retired ARS Employee; Castlebury, Lisa

Submitted to: Taxon
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/1/2019
Publication Date: 5/23/2019
Citation: Rossman, A.Y., Castlebury, L.A. 2019. Proposal to conserve the name Apioporthe corni (Aurantioporthe corni, Cryptodiaporthe corni) against Sphaeronaema aurantiacum and Myxosporium nitidum (Ascomycetes, Diaporthales). Taxon. 68(1):163-164. https://doi.org/10.1002/tax.12004.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/tax.12004

Interpretive Summary: Recent changes in the rules by which fungi are named have caused problems in knowing what to call some plant pathogenic fungi. Numerous papers have been published with recommendations on which name should be used for major groups of plant pathogens but some individual species have been overlooked. In this paper all known information is used to decide the correct name for a fungal species causing a disease of ornamental dogwood trees. This work is significant because it will allow correct identification of this important disease-causing fungus. These results will be used by plant pathologists, horticulturists, and forestry professionals as well as plant quarantine officials who need accurate scientific names to communicate about fungi.

Technical Abstract: Aurantioporthe corni (Wehm.) G. Beier & Blanchette causes golden canker and twig blight disease of pagoda or alternate-leaved dogwood (Cornus alternifolia L.f.) in northeastern North America and wherever this host is grown. This species was initially described in the genus Apioporthe Höhn. 1917, which is typified by Apioporthe anomala (Peck) Höhn. 1917, a species that is now accepted in Anisogramma E. Müll. as Anisogramma anomala (Peck) E. Müll. Based on a molecular phylogeny of the Cryphonectriaceae, Diaporthales, Beier & al. (l.c.) described a new genus Aurantioporthe for A. corni, but, in placing the type species in this genus, they neglected to consider the asexual morph species names for priority as required by the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi and plants. Two of the asexual morph names provide earlier epithets for this species: Myxosporium nitidum 1875 and Sphaeronaema aurantiacum 1878. Although often seen in the asexual morph, these names have been used less frequently for this species than the names referring to the sexual morph. Given the confusion about the generic placement of the taxon and the various names used for this fungus, it seems beneficial to conserve the basionym of the sexual morph, Apioporthe corni, over the two earlier names and continue recognition of this species as Aurantioporthe corni.