Growth and Sporulation of Triposporina Yakuensis

Abstract

During a survey of predacious fungi of Johnson County, Iowa (Kitz and Embree, 1979) conducted during the spring of 1976, a species of Triposporina von Hohnel was isolated from soil and leaf mold collected in an oak-hickory woodland at Lake MacBride State Park. This fungus, Triposporina yakuensis Matsushima, has been reported previously only from Yaku Island, Japan (Matsushima, 1975). Matsushima isolated T. yakuensis from leaves of Machili tunbergii (?Machilus thunbergii Sieb. & Zucc.), and provided a description of the species from this habitat and from culture on potato-sucrose agar. However, very little information was provided on the biology of the organism. The purpose of the following report is to compare our isolate of T. yakuensis with Matsushima's isolate, and to discuss the growth and sporulation of this fungus. The field collection from which our North American isolate was obtained had been placed on 2% water agar in a Petri dish and maintained under room light and temperature conditions. Although few conidia developed, their form was so distinctive that they were readily noticed. Spores were removed and washed by serial transfer through sterile drops of water, inoculated onto 1% malt agar, and axenic cultures were obtained.