Cladosporium sphaerospermum
| Cladosporium sphaerospermum | |
|---|---|
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Fungi |
| Division: | Ascomycota |
| Class: | Dothideomycetes |
| Order: | Capnodiales |
| Genus: | Cladosporium |
| Species: | C. sphaerospermum |
| Binomial name | |
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Cladosporium sphaerospermum Penz. (1882) |
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Cladosporium sphaerospermum is a fungus belonging to the genus Cladosporium and was described in 1886 by Albert Julius Otto Penzig from the decaying leaves and branches of Citrus. It is a dematiaceous (darkly-pigmented) fungus characterized by slow growth and largely asexual reproduction. Cladosporium sphaerospermum consists of a complex of poorly morphologically differentiated, "cryptic" species that share many physiological and ecological attributes. In older literature, all of these sibling species were classified as C. sphaerospermum despite their unique nature. Accordingly, there is confusion in older literature reports on the physiological and habitat regularities of C. sphaerospermum in the strict sense. This fungus is most phylogenetically similar to C. fusiforme. According to modern phylogenetic analyses, the previously synonymized species, Cladosporium langeroni, is a distinct species.
The hyphae of Cladosporium sphaerospermum are thick walled, septate, and olivaceous-brown in colour. Colonies of the fungus are velvety in texture and flattened (i.e., rarely raised, fluffy, or radially furrowed). C. sphaerospermum conidiophores are branched, septate, and dark, up to 150–300 μm long and 3.5–4.0 μm wide. The structure of the conidiophores are tree-like, a prominent feature of the genus Cladosporium. Unlike other related species, the conidiophores of this species lack swollen nodes at the branching points. Conidia of this species are characteristically globose to ellipsoid with a diameter of 3.4–4.0 μm. The conidia are formed in branching chains in which the youngest conidium is situated at the top.Cladosporium sphaerospermum also produces ramoconidia 6–14 × 3.5–4.0 μm in length and this feature can be used as a method of distinguishing between similar species. Ramoconidia are conidia found at the branching points joining multiple spore chains and can be recognized by one end having a single attachment scar and the other end having two or more attachment scars. Cladosporium sphaerospermum is also a psychrophilic fungus, known to grow at temperatures as low as –5 °C with an upper limit of 35 °C (95 °F) and no growth at 37 °C (99 °F). The optimal temperature this fungus grows under is 25 °C (77 °F). This fungus is xerotolerant as it can thrive in environments with low water activity caused by high salinity (halotolerant) or other dissolved solutes. This fungus has been observed to grow in as low as 0.815 awin vitro.
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