(2688) Proposal to conserve the name Phakopsora (Basidiomycota, Pucciniales) with a conserved type

Authors: AIME, MARY - Indiana University-Purdue University; ROSSMAN, AMY - Retired ARS Employee; ONO, YOSHITAKA - Ibaraki University; Castlebury, Lisa

Submitted to: Taxon
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/23/2019
Publication Date: 11/28/2019
Citation: Aime, M.C., Rossman, A.Y., Ono, Y., Castlebury, L.A. 2019. (2688) Proposal to conserve the name Phakopsora (Basidiomycota, Pucciniales) with a conserved type. Taxon. 68(3):592. https://doi.org/10.1002/tax.12076.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/tax.12076

Interpretive Summary: Recent changes in the rules by which fungi are named have caused problems in knowing what to call some plant pathogenic fungi and sometimes these rules force changes that are very disruptive and confusing to plant pathologists and other scientists. In this work, after evaluating all available information for a group (genus) of rust fungi that infect cotton, grapes, and soybeans, we propose to maintain their currently accepted genus name by designating a new representative species. This will minimize confusion that may result if the current representative (type) species is determined to be unrelated to the better known pathogenic species in this genus in the future. This work is significant because it will allow continued accurate communication about this group of important plant pathogenic fungi. These results will be used by plant pathologists and plant quarantine officials who need accurate scientific names to communicate about plant pathogenic fungi.

Technical Abstract: The generic name Phakopsora has been widely used for species of rust fungi that occur on soybeans and other members of the Fabaceae such as P. pachyrhizi causing Asian soybean rust and P. meibomiae causing Latin American soybean rust. In addition, this genus includes a complex of species that cause serious leaf rust diseases on grapevine and other vitaceous plants such as P. ampelopsidis, and P. vitis, on cotton such as P. gossypii and on eucalypts such as P. myrtacearum. The original type of Phakopsora is a little-known species, P. punctiformis, which was initially described as Melampsora punctiformis Barclay & Dietel 1890 on Galium aparine in India. Although this name was the only species name mentioned in the protologue of the generic name, the taxonomic placement of P. punctiformis is uncertain in that it has rarely been reported and is known only from China, India, Nepal and Russia. Little information exists for this fungus and no DNA sequences are available. In addition, this species lacks the uredinial paraphyses characteristic of most currently accepted species of Phakopsora and is thus not representative of most of the species now considered to belong in the genus Phakopsora. To bring the definition of the generic name Phakopsora in line with its current usage, we propose to conserve Phakopsora with a new type, P. pachyrhizi, the cause of the globally important disease Asian soybean rust.