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Microcyclic conidiogenesis in powdery mildews and its association with intracellular parasitism by Ampelomyces

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Abstract

Microcyclic conidiogenesis (MC), a process defined as the production of conidia on a spore without any, or only a minimal, involvement of hyphal growth, has recently been reported in a little known powdery mildew species, Oidium longipes. To investigate whether this was an isolated case or it is a more general phenomenon in powdery mildew fungi, germinating conidia of eight species of the Erysiphales were examined using light microscopy. The following species were included in this work: Erysiphe necator on grapevine, Blumeria graminis f. sp. hordei on barley, Podosphaera xanthii on cucumber, Erysiphe sp. on Ligustrum vulgare, O. longipes on Petunia x grandiflora, O. neolycopersici on tomato, Golovinomyces cichoracearum on Rudbeckia laciniata and Sawadaea sp. on Acer negundo. In all these species, up to 4% of the germinated conidia exhibited MC. Moreover, when colonies of E. necator and O. neolycopersici, on detached grapevine and tomato leaves, respectively, were treated with a conidial suspension of Ampelomyces, the intracellular pycnidia of these mycoparasites appeared in microcyclic conidiophores. This represents a yet undescribed method of accelerating asexual reproduction in this mycoparasite. In the life cycle of powdery mildews, the importance of MC is still not clear but it should be taken into consideration when conidial germination is studied on the host surface for purposes such as epidemiology or species identification.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a grant (OTKA K73565) of the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Plant Protection Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, H-1525, Budapest, P.O. Box 102, Hungary

    Levente Kiss, Alexandra Pintye, Györgyi Zséli, Tünde Jankovics, Orsolya Szentiványi & Yaser M. Hafez

  2. Plant Pathology Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Kafrelsheikh University, Kafr El-Sheikh, Egypt

    Yaser M. Hafez

  3. 30 Galtres Avenue, York, YO31 1JT, UK

    Roger T. A. Cook

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  1. Levente Kiss
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  2. Alexandra Pintye
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  3. Györgyi Zséli
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  4. Tünde Jankovics
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  5. Orsolya Szentiványi
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Correspondence to Levente Kiss.

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Kiss, L., Pintye, A., Zséli, G. et al. Microcyclic conidiogenesis in powdery mildews and its association with intracellular parasitism by Ampelomyces . Eur J Plant Pathol 126, 445–451 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10658-009-9558-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10658-009-9558-4

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