Taxonomic reappraisal of Typhula variabilis, Typhula laschii, Typhula intermedia, and Typhula japonica

Abstract

We have redefined Typhula variabilis, T. laschii, T. intermedia, and T. japonica on the basis of morphological and molecular evidence. Typhula variabilis, T. laschii, and T. intermedia, hitherto regarded as synonymous, were compared by critical observations of sclerotial rind cells. Rind cells of T. variabilis were thick and plateaued in the center, whereas of T. laschii had a ridge in the center. An isolate from winter wheat that we had previously identified as T. variabilis was reidentified as T. intermedia because it failed to mate with T. variabilis, even though rind cells of T. intermedia were digitate and occasionally had double-line contours, as in the case of T. variabilis. Sequencing of the internal transcribed spacer regions, including 5.8S, supported these differences, indicating that T. variabilis, T. laschii, and T. intermedia are separate species. Typhula japonica was characterized by two-spored basidia and basidiospores that often remained agglutinated with each other and germinated on basidiocarps. Its single basidiospores normally developed into dikaryotic mycelia and rarely into monokaryotic mycelia. (C) 2015 The Mycological Society of Japan. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

A new species of Typhula with sigmoid spores: Typhula suecica

“…Molecular data has been little used to test species boundaries in Typhula, with the exception of economically important pathogenic species (Hsiang & Wu 2000, Vergara et al 2004). While the vast majority of Typhula species has never been sequenced, a few recently described species have been supported using analyses of the ITS region (Hoshino et al 2009, Ikeda et al 2015. In our experience, however, the ITS region is too variable to align unambiguously across all of Typhula.…”

“…Since this monograph was published, contributions focusing on Typhula have been very sporadic. A handful of new species has been described from Asia (Hoshino et al 2009, Ikeda et al 2015, North America (Berthier & Redhead 1982) and Europe (Olariaga et al 2008, Olariaga & Salcedo 2009, but many more await formal description (Olariaga 2009), especially in the Nordic countries. According to our estimate, Typhula has ca 70 known species in the world, but the actual number of species is certainly higher since undescribed species are found often when conducting fieldwork.…”

Taxonomic revision of the <i>Typhula ishikariensis </i>complex

“…Snow mold is incited by many fungi that attack dormant plants such as forage crops, winter cereals and conifer seedlings under snow cover ( Matsumoto & Hsiang, 2016 ). Although some of their taxonomic and ecological features have only recently been elucidated (e.g., Saito, 1998 ; Hoshino, Tkachenko, Kiriaki, Yumoto, & Matsumoto 2004b ; Ikeda, Hoshino, Matsumoto, & Kondo, 2015 ), the taxonomic confusion of the most important fungus, Typhula ishikariensis S. Imai still remains unsolved, and requires thorough comparison. McDonald (1961) , after literature review, concluded that T. ishikariensis had priority among related fungi.…”

Typhula spathulata - first record from Turkey.

“…In many species hairs are found on the stems. Members of this genus typically appear in autumn and are generally saprotrophic, although some are parasitic (Knudsen 1997, Hoshino et al 2009, Ikeda et al 2015. In some species of this genus, a sclerotium, described as a resting structure formed from an aggregation of hyphae, can be observed (Ellis & Ellis 1990).…”