Chapter 160 - Tilletiopsis Derx ex Derx (1930)

Abstract

This chapter studies the genus Tilletiopsis. In the asexual reproduction colonies are cream colored, pinkish-cream, pinkish-yellow, yellow-brown, or brown, tough, and brittle to soft. Hyphae are regularly branched, narrow, septate, hyaline, and monokaryotic, with retraction septa, and cytoplasm-containing cells are usually surrounded by lysed cells. Clamp connections are absent. Septal pores are micropore-like. Ballistoconidia are bilaterally symmetrical, allantoid, falcate, or cylindrical and form on sterigmata. Chlamydospores may be present and are hyaline or pigmented. Sexual reproduction is unknown but chlamydospore-like structures of T. pallescens germinated with a holobasidium-like structure that forms ballistospores on the apex. It has been suggested that this structure represents the sexual state ballistospores on the apex. The chapter also discusses physiology/biochemistry and phylogenetic placement of the genus. The type species taken is Tilletiopsis washingtonensis. The key characters of species in the genus Tilletiopsis (T.) and Tilletiaria anomala are presented. In the systematic discussion of the species, growth on 5% malt extract agar, growth on the surface of assimilation media, Dalmau plate culture on morphology agar, formation of ballistoconidia, cell carbohydrates, gene sequence accession numbers, type strain, origin of the strains studied, systematics, agriculture and food, and clinical importance are determined.