March 2008 - Mycological Society of America

and Cordycepioideus. This suggests of a polyphyletic nature of the
genus. In Thailand Ophiocordyceps species linked with Hirsutella
anamorphs are O. unilateralis, O. brunneapunctata, O.communis, O.
humbertii, O. cf. acicularis and O. rhizoidea. Of these six teleomorphs,
only two were formally linked to Hirsutella anamorphs (O. unilateralis
– H. formicarum and O. humbertii – H. saussurei) although on the host
Hirsutella anamorphs have been identified. Molecular work has shown
the close relationship of Hymenostilbe and Hirsutella and there are
species sharing features of these two genera in their morphology. Our
results show that the genus Hymenostilbe is derived from Hirsutella,
occupying more the upper branches in the tree infecting dipteran flies
to wasps and ants. Contributed Presentation
Manoch, L.*, Jeamjitt, O., Dethoup, T., Eamvijarn, A. and Pikulklin, S.
Department of Plant Pathology, Faculty of Agriculture, Kasetsart University,
Bangkok 10900, Thailand. agrlkm@ku.ac.th. Some noteworthy
ascomycetes from soil and plants in Thailand. During the course
of an ecological survey on the ascomycetes of Thailand, soil samples
and diseased plants were collected from various locations. Alcohol and
heat treatments, soil plate, dilution plate methods and Gochenaur’s glucose
ammonium nitrate agar were used to isolate soil fungi. The supplement
of actidione (cyclohexemide) to agar media was employed to
isolate keratinolytic fungi. The tissue transplanting technique and half
strength potato dextrose agar (PDA) were employed for isolation of
plant parasitic fungi from diseased tissues. Morphological characteristics
of the ascomycetes were determined, such as growth rate, color,
texture on different agar medium. Microscopic characters were examined
under stereo, light and scanning electron microscopes. The results
revealed that a number of Pyrenomycetes were found from soil including
Echinopodospora spinosa, Gelasinospora dictyophora, G. hippopotomata,
Nectria viridescense with Acremonium anamorphic state,
Neurospora africana and N. dodgei. Species of Eurotiales (Trichocomaceae)
from soil included Emericella rugulosa, E. variecolor, Eupenicillium
spp., Eurotium spp., Hamigera avellanea, and Talaromyces
spp. Several species of keratinolytic fungi were found
including Arachniotus sp. and related genera. Pyrenomycetes from diseased
plants were Nectria hematococca with Fusarium solani anamorphic
state (blight of orchid leaf), Gnomonia sp. on cinnamon leaf, Leptosphaerulina
sp. with Phoma sp. anamorphic state (blight of cabbage),
and one unidentified species of Pyrenomycetes on decaying Ficus twig.
Pure cultures of all fungal isolates are being maintained at the Fungal
Culture Collection at the Department of Plant Pathology, Kasetsart
University for further investigations. Poster
Mata, Juan L. 1 * and Ovrebo, Clark L. 21 Dept. of Biological Sciences,
University of South Alabama, Mobile, AL 36695, USA, 2 Dept. of Biology,
University of Central Oklahoma, Edmond, OK 73034, USA.
jmata@usouthal.edu. New reports of Gymnopus for Costa Rica and
Panama. Field trips to the Caribbean lowlands of Costa Rica and Panama
in the last two decades have yielded several dozen collybioid collections.
Morphological examination of those collections has resulted
in the discovery of species not previously reported for this region of
Central America. The distribution range for Gymnopus luxurians, initially
described from southern United States and recently reported in
Dominican Republic, is extended into the Caribbean lowlands of Costa
Rica and Panama. Similarly, G. subpruinosus, known from the Greater
Antilles, is reported for Panama. Other new reports for Panama, but
previously recorded from Costa Rica, are G. neotropicus, G. omphalodes,
G. subcyathiformis, and G. luxurians var. copeyi. Poster
Matheny, P. Brandon 1 *, Aime, M. Catherine 2 , Buyck, Bart 3 , Desjardin,
Dennis E. 4 , Horak, Egon 5 and Lodge, D. Jean. 61 Biology Department,
Clark University, 950 Main St., Worcester, Massachusetts 01610,
USA, 2 USDA-ARS, Systematic Botany and Mycology Laboratory,
Room 304, Building 011A, 10300 Baltimore Ave, Beltsville, Maryland
20705-2350, USA, 3 Museum National D’histoire Naturelle, Départment
Systématique et Evolution, Bâtiment de Cryptogamie, Herbier de
Mycologie, Case postale 39 – 57, rue Cuvier, 75231 Paris Cedex 05,
France, 4 Department of Biology, San Francisco State University, San
28 Inoculum 59(2), March 2008
Francisco, California 94132, USA, 5 Ex-Curator Cryptogamic Herbarium
ZT, Federal Institute of Technology, ETH, CH-8092 Zurich,
Switzerland, 6 International Institute of Tropical Forestry, USDA Forest
Service-FPL, PO Box 1377 Luqillo, Puerto Rico 00773-1377. pmatheny@clarku.edu.
The evolution of tropical species of Inocybaceae
(Agaricales). Neotropical and paleotropical species of the ectomycorrhizal
(EM) mushroom family Inocybaceae currently comprise 18 percent
of the species-level diversity in the family from tropical latitudes,
including lowland and montane habitats. This poor representation of
tropical taxa, combined with the assumption that morphological traits
of tropical species are advanced, suggests that tropical taxa may be recently
derived, and that the family as a whole had a temperate Northern
or Southern hemisphere ancestral area (center of origin). As a consequence,
species of Inocybaceae are thought to have migrated or
dispersed relatively recently into tropical areas. A corollary of these hypotheses
would suggest the EM symbiosis has switched repeatedly to
tropical angiosperm partners of Casuarinaceae, Fabaceae, Fagaceae,
Dipterocarpaceae, Myrtaceae, Polygonaceae, Uapacaceae, and perhaps
other partners from temperate gymnosperm and angiosperm partners.
Our recent research has uncovered multiple novel lineages of Inocybaceae,
almost all of which likely contain endemic undescribed species
from tropical latitudes. In particular, the diversity of the family has been
undersampled in Miombo woodlands of Zambia, mixed dipterocarp/Fagaceae
forests of Thailand and India, and in the neotropics. We
test these hypotheses in a phylogenetic context using a molecular
dataset of multiple nuclear genes. We report that tropical taxa of Inocybaceae
tend to be diffuse (polyphyletic) throughout the family phylogeny,
and that tropical clades represent both early diverging and recently
derived lineages. Poster
McDonald, Tami R.*, Armaleo, Daniele and Lutzoni, François. Department
of Biology, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
trm5@duke.edu. Epigenetics of the lichen symbiosis. DNA methylation
is a key regulator of development in higher eukaryotes. Although
present at negligible levels in many fungi, DNA methylation is considerably
higher in lichen-forming fungi. In the lichen Cladonia grayi, the
DNA of the aposymbiotically grown fungus is relatively unmethylated,
while the DNA of the fungus in symbiotic association with its algal
partner is highly methylated. As DNA methylation is one hallmark of
epigenetic gene silencing, this observation suggests that gene silencing
may be a critical step in the formation or maintenance of the lichen
symbiosis. To determine which sequences are subject to methylation,
we made a library of methylated DNA from the fungal component of
the lichen. Analysis of clones from the library suggests that most targets
of DNA methylation are protein-coding sequences rather than intergenic
regions, transposable elements or repeated DNA. The implication
is that these regions are downregulated or silenced in the
symbiotic state. The correlation between DNA methylation on these
candidate regions and the presence of related marks of epigenetic silencing,
including trancriptionally repressive histone H3 methylation,
presence of linker histone H1 and heterochromatin binding protein are
being investigated. Poster
McLenon-Porter, Teresita 1 *, Skillman, Jane E. 1 and Moncalvo, Jean
Marc. 1, 2 1 Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University
of Toronto, 25 Willcocks Street, Toronto, ON M5S 3B2, 2 Department
of Natural History, Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queens Park,
Toronto, ON M5S 2C6. terri.mclenon@utoronto.ca. Application of
phylogenetic methods to assess fungal diversity and community
structure from DNA sequences. Advances in molecular biology techniques,
expansion of nucleotide sequence databases, and development
of novel bioinformatic tools are collectively making large DNA-based
environmental microbial surveys more common. These methods routinely
detect hundreds of divergent sequences from even small halfgram
samples of soil that are often difficult to identify because they
poorly match sequences of known taxa in public databases. Phylogenetic
methods can be used to classify unknown sequences, detect new
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