Pestalotiopsis

Pestalotiopsis is a genus of ascomycete fungi in the Sporocadaceae family.

The genus was circumscribed by René Leopold Alix Ghislain Jules Steyaert in Bull. Jard. Bot. Etat. vol.19 on page 300 in 1949.

The genus name of Pestalotiopsis is in honour of Fortunato Pestalozza (died 1878), who was an Italian botanist and doctor who worked in Constantinople and Antalya.

The phylogenetic relationships of genus Pestalotiopsis and allied genera has been calculated from ribosomal DNA sequences and morphological characters in 2002.

The sexual state of Pesalotiopsis is Pestalosphaeria, which was introduced by Barr (in 1975) with the type species Pestalosphaeria concentrica. This species was isolated from the grey-brown spots on the living leaves of Rhododendron maximum growing in North Carolina, USA.

Some species of Pestalotiopsis are confirmed to cause human and animal diseases. For example, Pestalotiopsis spp. have been isolated from a bronchial biopsy, corneal abrasions, eyes, feet, fingernails, scalp, and sinuses from the human body. In 2013, the first case of fungal keratitis caused by Pestalotiopsis clavispora was recorded.

Pestalotiopsis species are known as plant pathogens, common endophytes or saprobes in a variety of hosts and environments. The species of fungi within this genus are normally considered as secondary pathogens that can be responsible for a variety of plant diseases, including cankers, dieback, leaf spots, needle blight, tip blight, grey blight, severe chlorosis, fruit rots and various other post-harvest diseases. Pestalotiopsis species occur as generalist endophytes in trees of Western Ghats forests of southern India. In Chile, Pestalotiopsis clavispora and other Pestalotiopsis spp. causes postharvest stem end rot on avocado plants. Pestalotiopsis spp. also cause leaf spot on Japanese persimmon.

19 different Pestalotiopsis species have been found as endophytes from bark and needles of Pinus armandii Franch. in China. Botella and Diez reported the isolation of a Pestalotiopsis sp. from Pinus halepensis Mill. in Spain, and Maharachchikumbura et al. referred to a Pestalotiopsis sp. isolated from a Pinus sp. in China. Pestalotiopsis species have also been isolated as endophytes from pine seeds of Pinus armandii in Yunnan province, China, and several other pine species across Europe and North America. Then in 2020, Pestalotiopsis pini sp. nov., was found as an emerging pathogen on Stone Pine (Pinus pinea L.) and on Pinus pinaster in Portugal.