Recent Papers

Volume 1 - 2010 - Issue 2

1. Diurnal fluctuation of spores of freshwater hyphomycetes in two tropical streams

Authors: Sridhar KR and Sudheep NM

Recieved: 10 April 2010, Accepted: 11 April 2010, Published: 22 June 2010

Diurnal changes in species and spore richness of freshwater hyphomycetes in relation to physicochemical features in two streams of the southwest India were compared using Millipore filtration during the post-monsoon season. Drift spores belonging to 16-19 species were recorded. Anguillospora longissima, Flagellospora curvula, Lunulospora curvula and Triscelophorus monosporus were dominant in both streams. The Pearson correlation revealed significant negative correlation between temperature and dissolved oxygen (p < 0.01) in both streams. The water temperature, pH and conductivity decreased between day and night, while the dissolved oxygen became elevated. Total species showed two peaks at 12 hr intervals (9 am and 9 pm) in both streams. The species richness, diversity and evenness were higher during the night than day in the Konaje stream, while it was reverse in the Mallapura stream. The species richness of both streams has no significant correlation with water quality. The total spores exhibited two peaks at 15 hr intervals (3 pm and 6 am) in both streams. The total spores differed significantly (p < 0.001) between streams and was higher during the night than day in both streams, possibly due to lack of leaf shredding invertebrates. Among the five dominant species, peak spore production of Lunulospora curvula in both streams coincided with the peaks of total spores. The spore richness in the Konaje stream had no significant correlation with water parameters, but showed significant negative correlation with temperature in the Mallapura stream (p < 0.05). This study revealed contrasting results in diurnal fluctuation of spores of freshwater hyphomycetes compared to temperate region.

Keywords: diurnal periodicity - freshwater hyphomycetes - Millipore filtration - spore concentration - water quality

2. Occurrence of coprophilous Agaricales in Italy, new records, and comparisons with their European and extraeuropean distribution.

Authors: Doveri F

Recieved: 25 March 2010, Accepted: 21 May 2010, Published: 19 July 2010

This work is the successor to a recent monograph on coprophilous ascomycetes and basidiomycetes from Italy. All Italian identifications of coprophilous Agaricales, which the author has personally studied over an 18 year period, are listed and categorized depending on the dung source. All collections were subjected to the same procedure and incubated in damp chambers and an estimate of occurrence of fungal species on various dung types is made. A second collection of Coprinus doverii is described and discussed, while the southern most finding of Panaeolus alcis is listed. An additional collection of Psilocybe subcoprophila, a species previously reported from Italy, is described and illustrated with colour photomicrographs. The morphological features of each species is briefly described, and substrate preferences compared with those reported from previous data.

Keywords: Coprinus doverii – damp chambers – fimicolous basidiomycetes – frequency – natural state – Panaeolus alcis – Psilocybe subcoprophila – survey

3. The agaricoid genus Kinia is a new member of the Pluteoid clade subordinate to Melanoleuca

Authors: Vizzini A, Consiglio G, Setti L and Murat C

Recieved: 14 April 2010, Accepted: 26 April 2010, Published: 19 July 2010

Based on maximum likelihood and Bayesian LSU rDNA analyses, the recently described monospecific genus Kinia is reduced to a subgenus of the genus Melanoleuca, a genus exhibiting phylogenetic affinities with members of the Pluteaceae within the Pluteoid clade. The new combination Melanoleuca privernensis and the new subgenus Kinia, are introduced.

Keywords: Agaricomycetes – Amanitaceae – Pluteaceae – bilateral gill trama – taxonomy

4. Dictyostelid cellular slime moulds from Africa

Authors: Cavender JC, Landolt JC, Ndiritu GG, Stephenson SL

Recieved: 08 April 2010, Accepted: 10 May 2010, Published: 19 July 2010

Dictyostelid cellular slime moulds (dictyostelids) are an understudied group in Africa, but several recent surveys carried out in the context of a Planetary Biodiversity Inventory project funded by the National Science Foundation of the United States have added a considerable number of new records from several areas of the continent. Since Edgar Olive isolated Polysphondylium pallidum from a sample of dung collected in Liberia at some point during the period between 1897 and 1900, at least 25 species of dictyostelids have been documented for continental Africa and about the same number for the island of Madagascar. These totals include an appreciable number of forms that appear to be new to science. Most of what is now known about the dictyostelids of continental Africa has been derived from study sites in East Africa and South Africa. Only limited data exist for West Africa and Central Africa, and we are aware of records of only two species of dictyostelids from all of North Africa.

Keywords: Dictyostelium – distribution – Madagascar – Polysphondylium

5. Protein kinase inhibitors and other cytotoxic metabolites from the fungal endophyte Stemphylium botryosum isolated from Chenopodium album

Authors: Aly AH, Debbab A, Edrada-Ebel RA, Müller WEG, Kubbutat MHG, Wray V, Ebel R, Proksch P

Recieved: 14 April 2010, Accepted: 26 April 2010, Published: 03 August 2010

The endophytic fungus Stemphylium botryosum was isolated from leaves of the medicinal plant Chenopodium album collected in Egypt. Extracts of the fungus grown on rice exhibited considerable cytotoxicity when tested in vitro against L5178Y mouse lymphoma cells. Upon chemical investigation they afforded the macrocyclic lactones curvularin (1) and dehydrocurvularin (2), as well as altersolanol A (3), tetrahydroaltersolanol B (4), stemphyperylenol (5) and macrosporin (6). The structures of all isolated compounds were determined by 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopy and mass spectrometry as well as by comparison with published data. Compounds 1-3 exhibited considerable cytotoxicity against L5178Y cells with EC50 values of 16, 1.4 and 0.6 μM, respectively, whereas the remaining compounds showed only modest activity. All compounds were further tested for protein kinase inhibitory activity in an assay involving 24 different kinases. Compound 3 was the most potent inhibitor displaying EC50 values ranging between 1.9 and 29.4 μM toward individual kinases, followed by 6 (EC50 = 2.3 - 27.1 μM). Compounds 4 and 5 showed moderate activity, while 1 and 2 were inactive.

Keywords: cytotoxic activity – endophytic fungi – natural products – protein kinases

6. New species of pyrenomycetes from eastern Russia: Endoxylina rufula (Diatrypaceae)

Authors: Vasilyeva LN

Recieved: 04 April 2010, Accepted: 10 May 2010, Published: 03 August 2010

Endoxylina rufula is described and illustrated based on a collection found in eastern Russia. Its distinctive features are the rusty-colour of stromata studded with black and rounded ostioles, as well as comparatively small and fusiform ascospores. Asci in the same fascicles always contain ascospores of two kinds: non-septate Barrmaelia-like and septate Endoxylina-like; the former do not look like the immature state of the latter.

Keywords: ascomycetous fungi – Diatrypales – taxonomy

7. The mycorrhizal status of indigenous arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi of physic nut Jatropha curcas in Thailand

Authors: Charoenpakdee S, Cherdchai P, Dell B, Lumyong S

Recieved: 10 April 2010, Accepted: 01 June 2010, Published: 03 August 2010

The dependence of physic nut (Jatropha curcas L.) on beneficial soil fungi for growth is not known. Therefore, the spore density and species diversity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal (AMF) associated with physic nut was assessed by extracting spores from physic nut plantings from 10 sites across 6 provinces in northern and north-eastern Thailand. Approximately 700 AMF spores, obtained using the wet sieving and sucrose gradient centrifugation methods, were identified into morphospecies. Colonization by AMF was assessed under a compound microscope using root samples stained with trypan blue. The following 34 morphospecies of AMF were identifed: Acaulospora (16 species), Entrophospora (1 species), Gigaspora (2 species), Glomus (10 species) and Scutellospora (5 species). The diversity index ranged from 0.28 to 0.86 (average 0.64) and the species richness of AMF ranged from 3 to 11 (average 6.2). Roots of physic nut were colonized by AMF at all sites sampled and infection levels ranged from 38 to 94% of root length. The presence of mycorrhizas in soils varying in pH from acidic to calcareous, of low to moderate organic matter and of low to high available P suggests that physic nut may be highly dependent on AMF.

Keywords: ecology – species diversity – soil chemistry – spore density

8. Two new species of Diatrypaceae from coastal wattle in Coorong National Park, South Australia

Authors: Trouillas FP, Sosnowski MR, Gubler WD

Recieved: 16 June 2016, Accepted: 13 July 2010, Published: 03 August 2010

In the present study, two species of Diatrypaceae were isolated from the wood of Acacia longifolia subsp. sophorae shrubs in the Coorong National Park, South Australia. Based on habitat, host, morphological observations and literature review, the isolates are described as the new species Diatrype brunneospora and Eutypella australiensis. These new taxa are fully described and illustrated and sequences of the internal transcribed spacer region of the nuclear ribosomal DNA are also provided.

Keywords: Australia – Diatrypaceae – New species – Taxonomy