Commonwealth Mycological Institute Research Articles

Book Reviews

From Cell to Organism. D. KENNEDY (Readings from Scientific American) W. H. Freeman and Co. London, 1967. Reviewed by K. Mansford Laboratory Methods in Microbiology. W. F. HARRIGAN and MARGARET E. McCANCE, Pp. xi + 362 + 22 figs. London and New York: Academic Press, 1966. 79s. Reviewed by D. G. Smith Living Embryos. An introduction to the study of Animal Development. J. COHEN, Pp. vii+156 + 49 figs.+ 15 plates. Oxford: Pergamon Press. 1967. Revised 2nd Edition. 25s. Reviewed by A. S. G. Curtis Classwork with Fungi. H. A. DADE and JEAN GUNNELL, Pp. 55 + 86 figs. Commonwealth Mycological Institute, 1966. 10s. Reviewed by Alison Leadley-Brown Courtship: A Zoological Study. M. BASTOCK, Pp. viii + 220. London: Heinemann Educational Books, 1967. 25s. Reviewed by A. Barker Fundamental Concepts of Biology. G. E. NELSON, G. G. ROBINSON and R. A. BOOLOOTIAN, Pp. x +331 + 330 figs. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 1967. Reviewed by M. H. Williamson The Evolution of Differentiation. W. S. BULLOUGH, Pp. vii + 206 + 32 figs. London and New York: Academic Press, 1967. 45s. Reviewed by B. Bracegirdle

Book Reviews

Abstract Class Work with Fungi (Notes for Teachers) by H. A. Dade and Jean Gunnell—The Commonwealth Mycological Institute, Kew, Surrey. 1966. 55 pp. 9″ × 6″. Price 10/- Ecology of Fungi by R. K. Robinson Publisher: The English Universities Press Ltd., London. 114 pp. 9″ × 6″, hard covers, 1967. Price 21/- Agriculture in the Tropics by C. C. Webster and P. N. Wilson Longmans Tropical Agriculture Series. 1966. 488pp. 63/-

Metarrhizium anisopliae(metschnikoff) sorokin strains in New Zealand and their possible use for controlling pasture-inhabiting insects

Abstract The green muscardine fungus, Metarrhizium anisopliae (Metsch.) Sorokin, is recorded for the first time on Costelytra zealandica White, Heteronychus sanctae-helenae Blanch., and Pericoptus truncatus Fabr. The three distinctive culture types isolated from these hosts and from Oxycanus sp. are described, and their selective pathogenicity is discussed and compared with cultures of M. anisopliae and Metarrhizium brunneum obtained from the Commonwealth Mycological Institute, Kew, and the Agricultural Research Service Collection, Peoria, Illinois. It is considered that this culture of M. brunneum comes within the species limits of M. anisopliae. Literature on M. anisopliae, its host range, and the use of the fungus for biological control, is reviewed. From a consideration of the strains of M. anisopliae in this country and an evaluation of overseas work, it is believed that this fungus is unlikely to be of much use for biological control of injurious pasture-inhabiting grubs in New Zealand.

Directorship of the Commonwealth Mycological Institute

Directorship of the Commonwealth Mycological Institute

UTILIZATION OF ADENINE BY A MUTANT OF CANDIDA UTILIS.

PREVIOUS work has shown that Candida utilis (strain IMI 23311) efficiently utilizes exogenous adenine for the synthesis of RNA1. During the course of subsequent investigations2, fresh cultures obtained, from the Commonwealth Mycological Institute were found to have undergone mutation. The mutant had a longer generation time than the original strain when grown in rich medium, and failed to grow satisfactorily under conditions used in tracer experiments. Since no culture afterwards supplied by the Commonwealth Mycological Institute was found to have the characteristics of the original strain, experiments were continued with C. utilis strain NCYC 321. This strain had been maintained since 1951 from an original culture of strain IMI 23311 (ref. 3) and was found to have similar growth characteristics to those of the original culture of strain IMI 23311 used in these laboratories. The mutant has now been found to differ from strain NCYC 321 with respect to the utilization of exogenous adenine, and it is desirable to record that strain IMI 23311 no longer has the metabolic characteristics of the organism used in our previous work.

A New Genus of the Eurotiales

In the course of an investigation on the fungi of Lahore soils, a member of the Eurotiales was repeatedly isolated at different soil depths. It has Thielavia-like ascospores but its peridium is colorless, an unusual feature in the Eurotiales and Perisporiales. A culture of this fungus was sent to the Commonwealth Mycological Institute for advice and Dr. C. Booth replied Culture M4 (83279) should I think be placed in a new genus differing from Thielavia in the ascocarp wall. In accordance with this suggestion, the fungus is here described as the type of a new genus.

Fruit Rot of Arecanut Caused by a New Fungus

During 1958-59, a severe post-harvest fruit rot of fresh arecanut (Areca catechu L.) was observed and three different fungi were isolated from diseased fruits exhibiting different types of symptoms. They were purified and individual pathogenicity was established. One of the pathogenic fungi appeared to be distinct from any described in the available literature and no record of a similar fungus on arecanut has so far been found. Therefore, this fungus is described as new. A specimen and the culture are deposited at Commonwealth Mycological Institute, England, and Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India.

Host Lists of Kenya Fungi and Bacteria

This list is compiled from the published lists of Kenya fungi and from the collections and records in the Plant Pathological Section of the Department of Agriculture, Nairobi. Collections deposited and identified at the Commonwealth Mycological Institute, Kew, have I.M.I numbers. Collections made after 1938 and not named at the Commonwealth Mycological Institute are given S.A.L. (Scott Agricultural Laboratories) numbers. Records supplied by the pathologist of the Kenya Forest Department are prefixed by the initials I.A.S.C. (Gibson). Earlier collections and records not included in the published lists are shown by the initials J.McD. (McDonald, 1920-38) and C.A.T. ( Thorold, 1931-8)...

The production of sporidesmin and sporidesmolides by Pithomyces chartarum.

SUMMARY: Methods for the assay of sporidesmin and the sporidesmolides were worked out and used in the study of the production of these metabolites by Pithomyces chartarum (Commonwealth Mycological Institute, Kew, England, Herbarium no. 74473) growing on an enriched potato carrot medium. High yields of sporidesmin and the sporidesmolides were associated with high utilization of medium constituents. No increase in the quantity of sporidesmin isolated from unit volume of medium was observed after the third day of incubation, despite further rapid growth of the fungus; by contrast good correlation was observed between the weight of sporidesmolides produced and fungal growth. These results were successfully applied to the production of experimental quantities of these materials.

Dictionary of the Fungi

Ainsworth and Bisby's Dictionary of the Fungi Fifth edition by Dr. G. C. Ainsworth. Pp. viii + 547. (Kew, Surrey: Commonwealth Mycological Institute, 1961.) 30s.

A Re-Evaluation of Arachniotus Indicus

Chattopadhyay and Das Gupta (1959) repeatedly isolated a relatively simple ascomycete from soil of paddy fields in Chinsurah, West Bengal, India. A culture of the fungus was sent to the Commonwealth Mycological Institute, Kew, England, where it was determined to be a new species of Arachniottus. Among the several strains isolated by Chattopadhyay and Das Gupta representing this new species there was one isolate which had sufficiently different cleistothecial characters to merit its description as a variety. These investigators subsequently described the new species as Arachniotus indicus and its variety as A. indicus var. major. A cultural description of A. indicus was given as it appeared on only one medium, potato-dextrose agar. Cleistothecia were light orangeyellow and measured 162-520 pu diam. Peridial hyphae were described as weblike and formed an imperfect peridium with peridial cells thinwalled and orange-yellow. Ascospores were oval to globose, pale orange-yellow and measured 3.2-4 x 2.8-3.6 u, averaging 3.6 x 3.2 ,. The variety, A. indicus var. major, differed from A. indicus in having larger cleistothecia which measured 227-1000 t/ diam and which were bright yellow initially but later became brown. Also, the peridial wall was somewhat more loosely arranged than in A. indicus. Through the courtesy of Dr. S. B. Chattopadhyay we were able to obtain cultures of A. indicus and its variety. Our study of these isolates revealed several salient features which evidently had been overlooked by previous investigators, and it is our intent in the present paper to report such findings. Further studies have shown that the fungi in question, Arachniotus indicus and( A. indicus var. major, are not representatives of the Gymnoascaceae, but are strains ()f Talaronyc,s (Penicillimnlt) vcrzm,riculatus (Dang.) C. R. Benjamin. Benjamin (1955) described the genus TalaromJzyces to include the ascosporic penicillia included in the P. luteum series by Raper and Thom (1949).

Banana Fruit-spot (‘Speckle’) caused by Deightoniella torulosa (Syd.) Ell.

Deightoniella torulosa (Syd.) Ell. (syn. Brachysporium torulosum Syd.; Cercospora musarum Ashby ; Helminthosporium torulosum (Syd.) Ashby) has been recorded on banana leaves and fruits in most major growing regions (Commonwealth Mycological Institute, Kew, Surrey, Distribution Map No. 175). The majority of earlier references to this fungus have concerned a leaf disease known as ‘black-spot’1–3 and a blackening of the tips of banana fruits4,5.

Sporidesmium bakeri recorded from Victoria, Australia.

STRONG evidence was produced1,2 in 1958 that facial eczema of sheep in New Zealand is caused by ingestion of spores of a fungus identified as Sporidesmium bakeri. Lately I carried out experimental work in New Zealand during January–March, 1959, which involved inter alia the isolation of Sporidesmium spores from pasture. On return to Australia a search made of pastures in southern Victoria disclosed the presence of a fungus which appeared superficially identical to the New Zealand Sporidesmium. A culture was forwarded to the Commonwealth Mycological Institute, who report that it is indeed Sporidesmium bakeri.

An instance of cytoplasmic inheritance in Aspergillus nidulans.

Aspergillus nidulans is a homothallic ascomycete normally reproducing by asexual conidia and sexual ascospores in perithecia, both types of spore being uninucleate (for other details see Pontecorvo (1953)). In a wild-type strain of this fungus obtained from the Commonwealth Mycological Institute (No. 16643), about 4% of spores whether conidia or ascospores, give rise under standard cultural conditions, to asexual colonies reproducing entirely by conidia (figure 29, plate 19). Numerous such asexual colonies were isolated by mass transfer first excluding the possibility of previous hyphal fusions with normal colonies in the same cultures. About one in twenty of these reverted to normal and produced perithecia, but only after prolonged incubation. The other isolates have remained asexual under a wide variety of cultural conditions and after many subcultures. The conidia and ascospores of normal colonies continue to segregate for normal and asexual type and frequently sectors of asexual type arise in normal colonies (figure 29). The normal perithecial colony invariably develops a reddish-brown pigment in the hyphal cells, the conidial colony being characterized by the absence of this pigment. A cross was made between a ‘true-breeding’ conidial form having white conidia ( w ) and being biotin-independent ( BI ) and a perithecial form having wild-type green conidia ( W ) and requiring biotin ( bi ). These nuclear markers for w and bi arose spontaneously and are the result of a single gene difference in each case (cf. Pontecorvo 1953). Following hyphal fusion of the two strains, perithecia of three types were obtained resulting respectively from the nuclear fusions (1) W bi x W bi , (2) W bi x w BI , and (3) w BI x w BI . There was thus in (3) recombination of the factor for perithecial formation without cross-fertilization. In other words the factor is not directly associated with the nucleus of the perithecial strain, but presumably with its cytoplasm (Jinks 1954; Sharpe 1956). Other crosses between perithecial and conidial forms gave similar results, but crosses between two conidial strains never produced perithecia although heterokaryons were established.

Diseases of Tobacco in Africa

Tobacco Diseases, with special reference to Africa By Dr. J. C. F. Hopkins. Pp. xvi + 178 + 4 plates. (Kew: Commonwealth Mycological Institute, 1956.) 35s.

The genus Monoblepharis

An account is given of the genus Monoblepharis , all the previously known species of the genus, together with two new species and two new varieties having been collected and studied, i.e. M. sphaerica Cornu, M. polymorpha Cornu, M. insignis Thaxter (var. insignis and var. minor var.nov.), M. fasciculata Thaxter (var. fasciculata and var. magna var.nov.), M. macrandra (Lagerh.) Woronin (var. macrandra and var. laevis Sparrow), M. bullata sp.nov., M. hypogyna sp.nov. M. insignis and M. fasciculata have not been described since their original description from America in 1895. The essentials of Thaxter's descriptions are corroborated, but new information is added and the scope of M. fasciculata is extended. M. sphaerica also has not been described since its original brief description by Cornu in 1871. This species is fully described, and recorded for Great Britain, for the first time. It is shown that Cornu's species is quite distinct from M. sphaerica Cornu emend. Woronin and a new species M. hypogyna is erected to include the latter. Knowledge of the life history is extended, and information on the occurrence of the species in their natural habitats, together with conditions for growth in the laboratory are included. Suggestions are made to account for the infrequent collection of species of Monoblepharis . The relationship of Monoblepharis to the other genera of the Monoble-pharidales, i.e. Monoblepharella and Gonapodya , is discussed. Type (or representative) material of all the forms described has been deposited in the Herbarium of the Commonwealth Mycological Institute, Kew.

Wie sind die Herbarbelege des LINNÉ'schen Herbars in der Linnean Society in London zu interpretieren?

be described, if possible, by the collector who should be able to supplement the morphological description with field information. No new species should be valid without reference to its place in the system and at least its affinity with some well known species of the same genus. Drawings should accompany the descriptions of the more interesting species at least, as was done in the past. All this could be accomplished by congresses of biologists. Nomenclature rules are indispensable but ought to be purged of all which leads to totalitarian uniformity, acceptable for machines but never for the study of life. L'application trop rigoureuse des lois la nomenclature peut parfois compliquer la science au lieu d'en rendre l'etude claire et pratique. C'est pourquoi il faudrait conserver le nom des especes quand celles-ci auront ete connues pendant longtemps sous un vocable familier (Brumpt, I.c. p. 4). must be as usable, practicable and convenient as possible (Bisby, An Introduction to the Taxonomy and Nomenclature of Fungi, Commonwealth Mycological Institute, Kew 1945). Unfortunately, certain taxonomists confuse rules of nomenclature with the immutable laws of nature and waste everybody's time and energy trying to obtain an exact interpretation of these rules, as orthodox Christians and Marxians interpret the versicles of their bibles.

A Tea Root Disease New to South India

DURING a visit to some estates in Central Travancore in October 1951, my attention was directed to a small patch of unthrifty tea on one of the estates. The bushes appeared ‘thin’, with weak development of the branches and only a crown of unhealthy foliage. Examination of the aerial parts did not reveal any sign of insect damage or fungal attack. The roots, however, showed certain characteristic symptoms, namely, the entire absence of feeding roots and the presence of circular or slightly elongated and raised patches all over the bark of the tap and lateral roots (see photograph), and also extending to the collar—a feature not associated with any of the known root diseases of tea. The lesions varied in size from minute spots to small patches measuring 2–15 mm. across. The discoloration of the bark in the affected regions extended to a few cells only in the case of the small spots, while in the larger lesions the entire depth of the bark was affected and the wood too was occasionally seen to be discoloured just below the necrotic area on the bark. In some cases the affected bark had fallen off leaving a shallow scar or depression on the root surface. These external symptoms agreed to some extent with the verbal description of a Plasmodiophora root disease of tea reported from Assam in 1948 (private communication from the Directorate of Plant Protection, Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India). As no species of Plasmodiophora was evident in the South Indian material, it was sent to the Commonwealth Mycological Institute, Kew, for examination. While confirming the absence of Plasmodiophora, an apparently distinct species of Cylindrocladium was reported as being associated with the lesions on the root. Since sending the material to Kew, I have been able to isolate the fungus from the small spots on the diseased roots.

Fruiting of the Oak Mildew

ACCORDING to Butler and Jones1, two reports only of the finding of cleistocarps of the oak mildew in Great Britain have been published, the first2 referring to six cleistocarps on one leaf of Q. robur at Bricket Wood, Herts, in October 1945, the second3 to “a few perithecia on leaves of Quercus robur” at Aberystwyth in October 1947. A third collection (Herb. I.M.I. 19315) identified by E. A. Ellis as Microsphaera alphitoides on Q. robur, from Wheatfen Broad, Surlingham, Norfolk, also in October 1947, is deposited at the Commonwealth Mycological Institute (information from S. J. Hughes).

Studies in the Genus Cintractia. II. C. axicola and Related Species

Cintractia axicola (Berk.) Cornu, as the type of the genus, is one of the most widely distributed and best known species. Very little confusion has occurred concerning it in recent literature. However, a related species occurring on Cyperus, Cintractia limitata Clint., has occasioned much confusion. In the present paper, descriptions and synonymy of five species of Cintractia infecting Fimbristylis and Cyperus are presented. Besides the names in? cluded here, two other species, Cintractia tangensis P. Henn. and Cintractia javanica Racib., have been recorded on Cyperus. The former has not been available for study and hence has been excluded. The host of the latter was found to be a Rhynchospora. As in the previous series, the institutions in wrhich the specimens examined are located are indicated by abbreviations. Abbreviations, which were not given in the previous paper, are as follows: BR = Jardin Botanique de l'Etat, Brussels; CMI = Commonwealth Mycological Institute, Kew; LP = Instituto de Botanica Spegazzini, Universidad Nacional de La Plata; ND = Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi. Wherever the location is not given, the specimen is in the writer's personal collection. The writer is very grateful to those who furnished the material and facilities for study in their institutions; and to Mr. J. A. Stevenson for the review of the manuscript.