Biological and Cultural Studies of Three Species of Protomyces

The genus Protomyces, established by Unger in 1832 and based on Protomyces macrosporus, is the type genus of the family Protomycetaceae. This family also includes Taphridium Lagerh. & Juel, Volkartia Maire, and Protomycopsis P. Magn. About nineteen species of Protomycetaceae have been described. The systematic position of the family is still doubtful. All species of Protomyces are parasitic, causing galls on stems, leaves or fruits of Compositae or Umbelliferae and forming in the tissues of their hosts large, round, thick-walled resting chlamydo? spores (called sporangia by some authors) as the result of enlargement of segments of the mycelium. These spores are subepidermal or are intercellular in the underlying tissues. Sappin-Troufry (1897), Popta (1899), Buren (1915, 1922) and Fitzpatrick (1930) have studied the genus cytologically or morphologi? cally. In Japan, K. Sawada (1923, 1925, 1935, 1943) reported seven species in Formosa, of which three were new, and S. Akai (1939) studied anatomically the galls of P. pachydermus and P. inouyei. Biiren re? ported in detail the germination of chlamydospores and the conjugation and the budding of liberated spores. Virtually nothing has been re? ported, as far as I am aware, concerning behavior of Protomyces in artificial media.