Microscopy ofTaxomyces andreanae, a new taxon isolated fromTaxus

Abstract

A newly described fungus,Taxomyces andreanaeStrobel, Stierle, & Hess. has also been isolated from (Taxus brevifoliaNutt.), The growth pattern of the fungus was determined by growing it on various plant species, plant parts and agar cultures. The morphological characteristics appeared to be more diverse when the fungus was grown on twigs of yew wood. Therefore, the purpose of these investigations was to use electron microscopy to more carefully observe the nature of fungal growth and bulbil formation ofT.andreanaeon twigs of yew wood.Small pieces of sterile plant tissues were used to grow the fungus. For microscopy studies, procedures outlined by Upadhyay et al. were used, which consisted of fixation and dehydration followed by critical point drying and sputter coating for SEM, and embedment in Spurr resin for TEM. All SEM photos were taken at 10 kV. Fungal colonies had sparse to very dense concentrations of hyphal cells (Fig. 1) which, in some areas of cultures, produced hyphal cells which averaged from 1.25 μm to larger cells which averaged 3.75 μm in diameter.