March 2008 - Mycological Society of America

jinx.campbell@usm.edu. Diversity and role of fungi in coastal
ecosystems. Growing interest in marine and estuarine habitats in recent
years has led to an increase in studies on marine fungi. Although the
first marine fungi were described in 1846, the existence of fungi entirely
confined to a marine environment was not recognized until about
40 years ago. Marine and estuarine environments occupy 75% of the
globe. However, marine fungi occur mainly in intertidal habitats such
as sandy beaches, jetties, saltmarshes and mangroves. Compared with
terrestrial fungi, the number of higher marine fungi is small. To date
only 444 species have been described from marine habitats. Marine
fungi can be saprophytes, symbionts or parasites on plants or animals.
All are microscopic; the largest being only 4-5mm in diameter. Saprophytic
fungi are important decomposers of cellulose, in the form of
driftwood, pilings, mangrove roots, marsh plants, algae and seagrass
leaves. They are also found on the exoskeletons, shells and protective
tubes of animals and fish where they degrade chitin, keratin, tunicin and
calcium carbonate. Marine fungi are able to form several types of symbiotic
associations: lichenoids which have phototrophic partners, usually
microscopic cyanobacteria or green algae, that can also occur in a
free-living state; true marine lichens that form obligate associations between
a mycobiont and a photobiont; and mycophycobioses that are
obligate symbioses between systemic fungi and a dominant marine
macroalgae. Of the known parasitic species of marine fungi, all but two
parasitize algae: one has been found on the carapace of crabs and the
other on proproots of mangroves. Marine fungi have often been overlooked
as participants in coastal ecological processes. However as interest
has grown in the existence of a marine mycota, so has the quest
for knowledge of what are they doing there and how are they doing it.
Marine fungi play a role in some of the major coastal ecosystem
processes. They are important in driving or controlling the mineral and
energy cycling within the ecosystem as well as influencing the community
composition of other organisms within the ecosystem.
Symposium Presentation
Cantrell, Sharon A.* and Perez-Jimenez, Jose R. School of Science and
Technology, Universidad del Turabo, Gurabo, PR 00778, USA. scantrel@suagm.edu.
Fungi thrive in hypersaline microbial mats. Microbial
mats are a laminated consortial system, functionally integrated and
self-sustained that harbor specific microbial communities. Three layers
are formed during the formation of the microbial mat (surface oxic -
green, a redox transition - pink and lower anoxic – black). The objective
is to document the fungal community within microbial mats using
molecular tools. Sampling was conducted in April (dry season) and October
(wet season) of 2006. We extracted DNA with MoBio Soil DNA
kit. For TRFLP, the ITS region was amplified using FAM-ITS1/ITS4.
Amplicons were digested with Hae III, cloned with TopoTA, sequenced
with Big Dye Terminator and analyzed in an ABI 3130.
TRFLP showed higher diversity in the wet season (49 phylotypes vs
25) particularly in the transition layer probably due to decrease in salinity
and increase in oxygen. Unique phylotypes were observed in the
green layers due to entrapment of exogenous spores. Diversity decreased
from the green to black layers. In the dry season the growth of
indigenous fungi is promoted by the increase in salinity. Many isolates
were dematiaceous fungi, C. sphaerospermum and H. werneckii, as
well as A. pullulans, Emeriocellopsis, Preussia, Rhodosporidium, Rhizoctonia
and fungal endophytes. Fungal molecular signature was detected
in microbial mats across layers and seasons suggesting that fungi
thrive in this hypersaline consortial. Contributed Presentation
Carmaran, Cecilia C. and Romero, Andrea I.* Facultad de Ciencias Exactas
y Naturales, UBA, Departamento de Biodiversidad y Biología
Experimental, Pabellon 2, piso 4, Ciudad Universitaria, Av. Int.
Guiraldes 2620, CP1428EHA, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
romero@bg.fcen.uba.ar. Microfungal conservation. Fungal conservation
raises some difficult issues, and is a topic novel for many people.
Because most fungi are inconspicuous most of the time, there is little
understanding of their diversity and even less of their importance.
The public is simply unaware that fungi are indispensable components
of the world’s ecosystems and that microfungi are a key source of many
10 Inoculum 59(2), March 2008
important pharmaceuticals and other commercial products. This lack of
understanding and awareness results in a political lack of concern about
conservation of fungi. For most countries participating in the Rio Convention
on Biological Diversity (CBD) this is evidenced by a total absence
of effort to implement the convention for this important group of
organisms. In 1994, Argentina approved the CBD; the Secretariat for
the Environment & Sustainable Development is in charge of promoting
the country’s biodiversity conservation but the scientific policy is
implemented through another Secretariat, which manages the financial
support. Argentine scientists are concerned that these two bodies have
divergent interests and that implementation of CBD goals in Argentina
is delayed by their different opinions. This symposium presentation
will discuss the impact of that problematic situation on fungal conservation,
and will review national responsibilities to the CBD as a legally
binding convention in respect of the fungi. Symposium Presentation
Carris, Lori M. 1 * and Castlebury, Lisa A. 21 Dept. of Plant Pathology,
Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164, USA, 2 USDA
ARS Systematic Botany and Mycology Lab, 10300 Baltimore Ave.,
Beltsville, MD 20705, USA. carris@wsu.edu. Is Tilletia contraversa
the causal agent of dwarf bunt of wheat? Tilletia contraversa is accepted
as the valid name for the dwarf bunt pathogen of wheat. This
species is a quarantine status pathogen with a host range including 45
grass hosts in 13 genera. In 1952, G.W. Fischer erected T. brevifaciens
for the dwarf bunt pathogen, which had previously been considered a
variant of T. caries, and designated a type on Agropyron intermedium
(now Thinopyrum intermedium). T. brevifaciens was then synonymized
with T. contraversa, described by Kühn (1874) for a smut on
Triticum repens (now Elymus repens). There are no valid species described
for the dwarf bunt pathogen based on a type from wheat. We
have noted differences in spore germination, and morphology of
teliospores and sterile cells among specimens of T. contraversa from
different host genera. A phylogenetic analysis was conducted using sequence
data from rDNA ITS, RPB2 and translation elongation factor 1
alpha to test conspecificity of specimens from Triticum and other grass
genera. Collections from Hordeum, Secalis, Thinopyrum and other
genera were found to represent species distinct from a complex of
wheat bunt pathogens consisting of T. caries, T. contraversa, and T.
laevis. This indicates that the broad synonymies proposed by various
authors may not accurately reflect phylogenetic or morphological
species and that the species status of T. contraversa needs further investigation.
Contributed Presentation
Castellano, Michael A. USDA, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research
Station, Forestry Sciences laboratory, 3200 Jefferson Way, Corvallis,
OR 97331, USA. mcastellano@fs.fed.us. Fungal conservation
efforts on Federal lands in the USA. The conservation and management
of forest macrofungi came to the forefront in the USA in 1993
with the creation of the Forest Ecosystem Management Assessment
Team (FEMAT) to address the issues of forest management on Federal
forests in the Pacific Northwest. One of the key objectives of the
FEMAT was to develop forest management alternatives that allowed
for the “maintenance and or restoration of habitat conditions to support
viable populations, well-distributed across their current ranges, of
species known (or reasonably expected) to be associated with oldgrowth
forest conditions.” Thus began focused attention on creating
lists of fungal species on Federal lands in western Washington and Oregon
and northern California (approx. 24 million acres) and identification
of specific fungal species at risk for reduction in population viability
due to forest management. Nearly concurrently the Federal
government begin an assessment of the Interior Columbia River Basin
(encompassing Idaho, eastern Washington and Oregon and small portions
of Utah and Nevada, totaling nearly 72 million acres) for species
(fungi included) in need of special consideration to ensure continued
viability. Later the All Taxa Biological Inventory (ATBI) initiative was
begun supported by the National Science Foundation. At present, 19 reserves
have begun or plan to begin an ATBI. This includes 12 National
Parks, five Tennessee State Parks, Adirondack Park in New York,
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