Interactions among ammonia fungi on MY agar medium with varying pH

Abstract

Five early-phase ammonia fungi (EP fungi) – Amblyosporium botrytis, Ascobolus denudatus, Peziza moravecii, Pseudombrophila petrakii, Coprinopsis phlyctidospora, and Tephrocybe tesquorum, and one late-phase ammonia fungus (LP fungus), Hebeloma vinosophyllum – were co-cultured on malt extract-yeast extract agar media at pH 5.5, 7.0, 8.0, and 9.0. The co-cultures among the earlystage EP fungi Amblyosporium botrytis, Ascobolus denudatus, Peziza moravecii, and Pseudombrophila petrakii, generally did not inhibit or accelerate the reproductive structure formation of the opposed fungi. Among the EP fungi, Am. botrytis, As. denudatus, and Pe. moravecii intermingled with each other. The late-stage EP fungus T. tesquorum inhibited the growth of other EP fungi. Another late-stage EP fungus, C. phlyctidospora, showed ability to invade other EP fungi, but it did not deeply invade into the territories of early-stage EP fungi. The LP fungus H. vinosophyllum tended to accelerate basidioma formation of C. phlyctidospora at pH 5.5 and 9.0. H. vinosophyllum formed the highest numbers of basidomata at pH 5.5. These results show that successive occurrence of ammonia fungi is caused by the interspecific interactions among ammonia fungi as well as by the physiological characteristic of each fungus associated with conditions of its inhabiting soils, such as pH and nitrogen concentration.