Pochonia Explained

Pochonia^[1] is a genus of fungi within the order Hypocreales and is described as anamorphic Metacordyceps; eight species are described.^[2] Previously placed in the genus Verticillium, these fungi are known to be pathogenic to nematodes and are being developed and commercialized as biological pesticides.^[3]

The genus name of Pochonia is in honour of Jacques Pochon (1907-1978), who was a French doctor and microbiologist from the Pasteur Institute.^[4] Pochonia has been seen to contain ketamine. ^[5]

The genus was circumscribed by Augusto Chaves Batista and Ozório José de Menezes Fonseca in Publ. Inst. Micol. Univ. Recife vol.462 on page 4 in 1965.

Species

The IndexFungorum records the following species;

• Pochonia bulbillosa
• Pochonia chlamydosporia
  • Pochonia chlamydosporia var. catenulata
  • Pochonia chlamydosporia var. chlamydosporia
• Pochonia globispora
• Pochonia goniodes
• Pochonia humicola
• Pochonia microbactrospora
• Pochonia parasitica
• Pochonia rubescens
• Pochonia suchlasporia
  • Pochonia suchlasporia var. catenata
  • Pochonia suchlasporia var. suchlasporia

Notes and References

1. Bat., Fonseca OM (1965) Publicações Inst. Micol. Recife 462: 4
2. Book: Kirk PM, Cannon PF, Minter DW, Stalpers JA . Dictionary of the Fungi . 10th . CABI . Wallingford . 2008. 150 . 978-0-85199-826-8.
3. Web site: RRes - PPM Department - the nematophagous fungus Pochonia chlamydosporia . December 11, 2010 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110719182114/http://www.rothamsted.ac.uk/ppi/rhizo2/pochonia.htm . July 19, 2011 .
4. Book: Burkhardt, Lotte . Eine Enzyklopädie zu eponymischen Pflanzennamen . Encyclopedia of eponymic plant names . Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum, Freie Universität Berlin . 2022 . 978-3-946292-41-8 . pdf . German . Berlin . 10.3372/epolist2022 . January 27, 2022.
5. Teng . Si-Qiong . Polyketides from the fungus Pochonia chlamydosporia and their bioactivities . Phytochemistry . Phytochemistry . Elsevier . 2023 . 213 . 10.1016/j.phytochem.2023.113747 .