Researches on Fungi ...

Abstract

RESEARCHES ON FUNGI cystidia (metuloids), which are very numerous, prominent, and encrusted with calcium oxalate, could not possibly act as spacing agents ; for here the hymenium is smooth. Possibly, in this genus, they serve to protect the fruit-bodies from slugs or other harmful animal parasites. The same interpretation might apply to the rigid coloured seta? of Hymenocha^te, but does not seem suitable for those of some species of the woody genus Fomes, e.g. F. nigricans and F. salicinus. De Bary's J investigation led him to the conclusion that in Lactarius delieiosus the cystidia arise from ordinary hyphre of the trama, but according to Massee 2 the cystidia of Russula and Lactarius are direct terminations of the laticiferous system. Massee's view is supported by the Avork of BifTen, 3 who found that in Collybia velutipes the cystidia form the hymenial endings of the conducting hyprne. In these cases, doubtless, the cell contents are of importance, although exactly in what way still remains to be explained. In Russula, at least, they do not seem to render the gills unpalatable to slugs, since these animals are particularly fond of the members of this genus, and often devastate the fruitbodies in a wood to such an extent that scarcely a single specimen is left undamaged. Earlier writers, Corda and others, stated that the cystidia of the fleshy fungi discharge their contents through their apices in the form of drops, but de Bary 4 and Brefeld could never satisfy themselves that this is done spontaneously. However, Massee and Worthington Smith have both upheld the older view. According to Massee, 5 cystidia, when mature, contain glycogen which is emitted through the nipple-like openings at their apices, and poured over the surrounding hymenium, where it serves as food for the developing spores. Smith 6 has figured the cystidia of Coprinus atramentarius, Gomphidius viscosus, and Agaricus radicatus as large, tiask-like 1

Sources of Carbon and Energy used by Coprinus lagopus sensu Buller

“…Madelin (1956a) reported his strain of C. lagopus to show little or no growth with nitrate or asparagine as sole nitrogen source, though it would utilize ammoniumnitrogen or alanine-nitrogen. It should, perhaps, be emphasized here that Madelin states that his isolate agreed well with Buller's (1924) description of C. lagopus, and the strains used in the present work also agree well with that description. However, Madelin used solid media as against the liquid medium used here, and more significantly the strain used by him had a temperature optimum of 20 to 25" (Madelin, I 956 b) as compared with a temperature optimum of 37" for the BC9/66 monokaryon and its relatives.…”

Chitosomes and chitin synthetase in the asexual life cycle of Mucor rouxii: spores, mycelium and yeast cells

“…These two features are probably related. Presumably, the large vesicles were derived from the vacuolar system of the fungus, which is known to become more abundant in older hyphae (Buller, 1933;Grove et al, 1970). The proteases in these vacuoles (Matile & Wiemken, 1967;Schwencke et al, 1983) may be responsible for the marked loss of chitin synthetase activity from stationary-phase mycelium during sucrose density gradient fractionation.…”

Cytology of Self Fusions in Hyphae of Phanerochaete velutina

“…If fusions function principally to enhance multi-directional translocation of materials around the mycelium, more efficient in a network than a series of unconnected radial elements (Buller, 1933), then the presence of septa at these points might afford some level of regulation of this process. The septa associated with fusions and those occurring during normal hyphal extension showed identical development and structure, forming by a process of centripetal ingrowth in a manner similar to that of other basidiomycetes (Moore & Marchant, 1972;Patton & Marchant, 1978).…”

“…Hyphae of P. velutina formed fusions with high frequency: 85% were of the tip-to-tip type, involving two growing apices, one often forming in a lateral wall as a result of the telemorphotic action of the other (see Buller, 1933). In other instances, fusions were of the tip-to-side type, an extending apex fusing into a morphologically normal lateral wall, or appression types, an opening forming in regions of lateral wall contact with no apparent involvement of a recognizable growing point.…”