Discovery or Extinction of New Scleroderma Species in Amazonia?

Abstract

The Amazon Forest is a hotspot of biodiversity harboring an unknown number of undescribed taxa. Inventory studies are urgent, mainly in the areas most endangered by human activities such as extensive dam construction, where species could be in risk of extinction before being described and named. In 2015, intensive studies performed in a few locations in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest revealed three new species of the genus Scleroderma: S. anomalosporum, S. camassuense and S. duckei. The two first species were located in one of the many areas flooded by construction of hydroelectric dams throughout the Amazon; and the third in the Reserva Florestal Adolpho Ducke, a protected reverse by the INPA. The species were identified through morphology and molecular analyses of barcoding sequences (Internal Transcribed Spacer nrDNA). Scleroderma anomalosporum is characterized mainly by the smooth spores under LM in mature basidiomata (under SEM with small, unevenly distributed granules, a characteristic not observed in other species of the genus), the large size of the basidiomata, up to 120 mm diameter, and the stelliform dehiscence; S. camassuense mainly by the irregular to stellate dehiscence, the subreticulated spores and the bright sulfur-yellow colour, and Scleroderma duckei mainly by the verrucose exoperidium, stelliform dehiscence, and verrucose spores. Description, illustration and affinities with other species of the genus are provided.

Scleroderma meridionale ectomycorrhizae on Halimium halimifolium: expanding the Mediterranean symbiotic repertoire

“…Scleroderma is a gasteroid genus in the Boletales (Basidiomycota), with a cosmopolitan distribution. About 25 species are currently recognized (Kirk et al 2008), although much work on the delimitation of taxa and their phylogenetic relationships is still ongoing (Phosri et al 2009;Wilson et al 2012;Rusevska et al 2014), and so is the identification of new species (Baseia et al 2016;Crous et al 2016). Species of Scleroderma establish ectomycorrhizal (ECM) symbiosis with a range of coniferous and non-coniferous trees and shrubs, both in temperate and tropical regions, with little tendency to host specificity (Jeffries 1999;Mrak et al 2016).…”

The (re)discovery of ectomycorrhizal symbioses in Neotropical ecosystems sketched in Florianópolis

“…(), Baseia et al . (), Sá & Wartchow () and Wartchow () for further data for Brazil; Grupe et al . (), Vasco‐Palacios et al .…”

“…Marcelo Sulzbacher (Universidade Federal de, Santa Maria, Brazil) presented his recent discoveries of hypogeous EMF in the semi-arid vegetation from Brazil, Felipe Wartchow (Universidade Federal da, Paraiba, Brazil) made a synthesis on the recent descriptions of EMF from northeast Brazil, and Aida Vasco-Palacios (Universidade Federal da Santa Catarina, Brazil) pointed out new EM mentions in Colombian white sands. The presentations made it more and more obvious that EMF occur in many habitats scattered in Neotropical lowlands (see Roy et al (2016) for a review on Brazil; Sulzbacher et al (2017) for a review on neotropical hypogeous fungi; Wartchow et al (2015), Baseia et al (2016), S a & Wartchow (2016 and Wartchow (2016) for further data for Brazil; Grupe et al (2016 and Vasco-Palacios (2016) for Colombia): they expanded the range of soil conditions relevant for looking for EM symbioses. Despite an explosion of checklists and new species descriptions, species accumulation curves remain barely saturated (Roy et al, 2016).…”

Checklist of Amazonian gasteroid fungi (Agaricomycetidae, Phallomycetidae, Basidiomycota)

“…in the Bolivian Amazon forest. Since then, most records of new Amazonian genera and species were from Brazil, especially in recent years (e.g., Trierveiler-Pereira et al 2009;Henkel et al 2010;Alfredo et al 2012a;Alfredo et al 2012b;Silva et al 2013;Cabral et al 2014a;Smith et al 2015;Baseia et al 2016;Crous et al 2016;Cabral et al 2017;Crous et al 2017;Accioly et al 2018;Crous et al 2018;Accioly et al 2019;Assis et al 2019;Cabral et al 2019).…”