Sirobasidium is a genus of fungi in the order Tremellales. Basidiocarps (fruit bodies) are gelatinous and appear to be parasitic on ascomycetous fungi on wood. Microscopically they are distinguished by producing septate basidia in chains which give rise to deciduous sterigmata. Species are distributed worldwide.

Sirobasidium
Sirobasidium magnum
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Fungi
Division: Basidiomycota
Class: Tremellomycetes
Order: Tremellales
Family: Sirobasidiaceae
Genus: Sirobasidium
Lagerh. & Pat. (1892)
Type species
Sirobasidium sanguineum
Lagerh. & Pat. (1892)
Species

Sirobasidium albidum
Sirobasidium apiculatum
Sirobasidium brefeldianum
Sirobasidium japonicum
Sirobasidium magnum
Sirobasidium minutum
Sirobasidium rubrofuscum
Sirobasidium sandwicense
Sirobasidium sanguineum

Taxonomy

edit

Sirobasidium was introduced in 1892 by Swedish mycologist Gustaf Lagerheim and French mycologist Narcisse Patouillard for two fungi collected in Ecuador that possessed distinctive, catenulate, tremelloid basidia (septate basidia formed in chains). Subsequent authors added further species with similar basidia.

Molecular research, based on cladistic analysis of DNA sequences, has shown that Sirobasidium may be polyphyletic (and hence artificial), though this is based on a single culture that may be contaminated and requires further research.[1][2]

Description

edit

Fruit bodies are gelatinous and are variously pustular to foliose (with leaf-like or seaweed-like fronds). Colours are typically reddish, yellow, or brown.

Microscopic characters

edit
 
Catenulate, septate basidia of Sirobasidium brefeldianum

The basidia are "tremelloid" (globose to ellipsoid or fusiform and vertically or diagonally septate) and catenulate (formed in chains), giving rise to fusiform sterigmata or epibasidia which detach from the basidia and then produce basidiospores. These spores are smooth, globose, and germinate by hyphal tube or yeast cells.[3][4]

Habitat and distribution

edit

Sirobasidium species are associated with and possibly parasitic on fungi in the Diatrypaceae growing on dead attached or fallen wood, including species of Eutypa, Eutypella, and Diatrype.[4] As a group, Sirobasidium species occur worldwide, though individual species may have a more restricted distribution.


References

edit
  1. ^ Boekhout T, Fonseca Á, Sampaio JP, Bandoni RJ, Fell JW, Kwon-Chung KJ (2011). Chapter 100 - Discussion of teleomorphic and anamorphic basidiomycetous yeasts, in Kurtzman et al., The Yeasts (Fifth ed.). Elsevier. pp. 1339–1372. doi:10.1016/B978-0-444-52149-1.00100-2. ISBN 9780444521491.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. ^ Yamada M, Endoh R, Masumoto H, Yoshihashi Y, Ohkuma M, Degawa Y (2022). "Taxonomic study of polymorphic basidiomycetous fungi Sirobasidium and Sirotrema: Sirobasidium apiculatum sp. nov., Phaeotremella translucens comb. nov. and rediscovery of Sirobasidium japonicum in Japan". Antonie van Leeuwenhoek. 115 (12): 1421–1436. doi:10.1007/s10482-022-01787-9. PMID 36327002. S2CID 253266990.
  3. ^ Bandoni RJ (1957). "The spores and basidia of Sirobasidium". Mycologia. 49 (2): 250–255. doi:10.2307/3755633. JSTOR 3755633.
  4. ^ a b Dämon W, Hausknecht A (2002). "First report of a Sirobasidium species in Austria, and a survey of the Sirobasidiaceae" (PDF). Österr. Z. Pilzk. 11: 133–151.