Abstract
Although species of the genus Tricholoma are currently considered to produce inamyloid spores, a novel standardized method to test sporal amyloidity (which involves heating the sample in Melzer’s reagent) showed evidence that in the tested species of this genus, which belong in all 10 sections currently recognized from Europe, the spores are amyloid. In two species, T. josserandii and T. terreum, the spores are also partly dextrinoid. This result provides strong indication that a positive reaction of the spores in Melzer’s reagent could be a character shared by all genera in Tricholomataceae s. str.
Highlights
It has been known for about 150 years that some ascomycete and basidiomycete sporomata may contain elements which stain grey to blue-black with iodinecontaining solutions
Tricholoma apium, T. arvernense, T. fucatum and T. josserandii are not included in these sections and occupy an isolated position
All the Tricholoma collections showed spores with at least partly dark grey to blue amyloid walls under the light microscope both by the novel standardized protocol (HM) and the classical method with spores observed after 30 min. (CM30) and 120 m. (CM120), regardless of the soaking medium used (Table 1) (Figs. 3 and 4c–i)
Summary
It has been known for about 150 years that some ascomycete and basidiomycete sporomata may contain elements which stain grey to blue-black with iodinecontaining solutions. Such a staining was termed amyloid reaction, sometimes written as I+ or J+ (the term “amyloid” being derived from the Latin amyloideus, i.e. starch-like), because plant starch gives a similar reaction with iodine (starch-reaction) (Bailey and Whelan 1961; Locquin and Langeron 1978; Immel and Lichtenthaler 2000). The other component, amylopectin, gives a red-purple colour which is much less intense than the amylose stain (Bailey and Whelan 1961; Shen et al 2013).
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