Why everlastings don't last
The Cape Floral Region represents one of the world's biodiversity hot spots, with a high level of plant, animal and insect endemism. The fungi occurring in this region, however, remain poorly studied. It is widely postulated that each plant species should harbour at least five to six
unique fungal species, a number that we regard to be a huge underestimate. To test this hypothesis, we decided to study a single senescent flower of Phaenocoma prolifera ('everlasting'; Asteraceae) collected in South Africa, and posed the question as to how many different species
of fungi could be isolated and cultivated from 10 leaf bracts. Using a damp chamber technique, numerous microfungi could be induced to sporulate, enabling most of them to be successfully isolated on artificial agar media. Isolates were subsequently subjected to DNA sequencing of the ITS and
LSU nrDNA regions. During the course of this study 17 species could be cultivated and identified, of which 11 appeared to be new to science. These in clude Catenulostroma hermanusense, Cladosporium phaenocomae, Devriesia tardicrescens, Exophiala capensis, Penidiella
aggregata, P. ellipsoidea, Teratosphaeria karinae, Toxicocladosporium pseudoveloxum spp. nov., and Xenophacidiella pseudocatenata gen. & sp. nov. Further studies are now required to determine if these fungi also occur as endophytes in healthy flowers. If
this trend holds true for other plant hosts from southern Africa, it would suggest that there are many more fungi present in the Cape Floral Region than estimated in previous studies.
Keywords: BATCHELOROMYCES; CATENULOSTROMA; CLADOSPORIUM; DEVRIESIA; EXOPHIALA; ITS; LSU; PENICILLIUM; PENIDIELLA; PHAENOCOMA PROLIFERA; SYSTEMATICS; TERATOSPHAERIA; TOXICOCLADOSPORIUM; XENOPHACIDIELLA
Document Type: Research Article
Publication date: 30 June 2011
- Persoonia aims to publish papers dealing with molecular phylogeny and evolution of fungi. A further aim is to promote fungal taxonomy by employing a polythetic approach to clarify the true phylogeny and relationships within the kingdom Fungi. The journal publishes high-quality papers elucidating known and novel fungal taxa at the DNA level, and also strives to present novel insights into evolutionary processes and relationships. Papers to be considered include research articles and reviews.
Papers are published using a Fast Track system. This implies that the papers are immediately published online and freely available through the internet via this website. Volumes appear twice a year (June and December). From Volume 36 onwards (2016) hard copy volumes will only be made available through printing-on-demand. The issues can be ordered separately through the Publication Division of Naturalis Biodiversity Center; e-mail: [email protected].
Persoonia is a journal published jointly by the Naturalis Biodiversity Center and the Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute. - Editorial Board
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