''Ascocoryne sarcoides'' is a species of
fungus
A fungus (: fungi , , , or ; or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and mold (fungus), molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as one ...
in the family
Helotiaceae
The Helotiaceae are a family of fungi in the order Helotiales. The distribution of species in the family are widespread, and typically found in tropical areas. There are 117 genera and 826 species in the family.
A question mark after the genu ...
. The species name is derived from the Greek (fleshy). Formerly known as ''Coryne sarcoides'', its
taxonomical
In biology, taxonomy () is the scientific study of naming, defining ( circumscribing) and classifying groups of biological organisms based on shared characteristics. Organisms are grouped into taxa (singular: taxon), and these groups are given ...
history has been complicated by the fact that it may adopt both sexual and
asexual forms. Colloquially known as jelly drops
[ or the purple jellydisc,] this common fungus appears as a gelatinous mass of pinkish or purple-colored discs. Distributed widely in North America, Eurasia, and Oceania, ''A. sarcoides'' is a saprobic
Saprotrophic nutrition or lysotrophic nutrition is a process of chemoheterotrophic extracellular digestion involved in the processing of decayed (dead or waste) organic matter. It occurs in saprotrophs, and is most often associated with fungi ...
fungus and grows in clusters on the trunks and branches of a variety of dead woods. Field studies suggest that colonization by ''A. sarcoides'' of the heartwood
Wood is a structural tissue/material found as xylem in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulosic fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin t ...
of black spruce
''Picea mariana'', the black spruce, is a North American species of spruce tree in the pine family. It is widespread across Canada, found in all 10 provinces and all 3 territories. It is the official tree of Newfoundland and Labrador and is tha ...
confers some resistance to further infection by rot-causing fungi. ''A. sarcoides'' contains the antibiotic
An antibiotic is a type of antimicrobial substance active against bacteria. It is the most important type of antibacterial agent for fighting pathogenic bacteria, bacterial infections, and antibiotic medications are widely used in the therapy ...
compound ascocorynin, shown in the laboratory to inhibit the growth of several gram-positive bacteria
In bacteriology, gram-positive bacteria are bacteria that give a positive result in the Gram stain test, which is traditionally used to quickly classify bacteria into two broad categories according to their type of cell wall.
The Gram stain ...
.
Taxonomy
The taxonomical
In biology, taxonomy () is the scientific study of naming, defining ( circumscribing) and classifying groups of biological organisms based on shared characteristics. Organisms are grouped into taxa (singular: taxon), and these groups are given ...
history of this fungus has been complicated by the fact that its life cycle
Life cycle, life-cycle, or lifecycle may refer to:
Science and academia
*Biological life cycle, the sequence of life stages that an organism undergoes from conception to reproduction
*Life-cycle hypothesis, in economics
*Erikson's stages of psy ...
allows for both an imperfect
The imperfect ( abbreviated ) is a verb form that combines past tense (reference to a past time) and imperfective aspect (reference to a continuing or repeated event or state). It can have meanings similar to the English "was doing (something)" o ...
(making asexual spores, or conidia
A conidium ( ; : conidia), sometimes termed an asexual chlamydospore or chlamydoconidium (: chlamydoconidia), is an asexual, non- motile spore of a fungus. The word ''conidium'' comes from the Ancient Greek word for dust, ('). They are also ...
) or perfect (making sexual spores) form; at various times authors have assigned names to one or the other form, but these names have often been at odds with the accepted rules of fungal nomenclature. It was originally described in 1781 by the Dutch scientist Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin
Nikolaus Joseph Freiherr von Jacquin (16 February 172726 October 1817) was a scientist who studied medicine, chemistry and botany.
Biography
Born in Leiden in the Netherlands, he studied medicine at Leiden University, then moved first to Par ...
as ''Lichen sarcoides''.[ ]Christian Hendrik Persoon
Christiaan Hendrik Persoon (31 December 1761 – 16 November 1836) was a Cape Colony mycologist who is recognized as one of the founders of mycology, mycological Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy.
Early life
Persoon was born in Cape Colony at ...
called it ''Peziza sarcoides'' in 1801. Elias Magnus Fries
Elias Magnus Fries (15 August 1794 – 8 February 1878) was a Swedish mycologist and botanist. He is sometimes called the Mycology, "Linnaeus of Mycology". In his works he described and assigned botanical names to hundreds of fungus and li ...
, in his 1822 publication ''Systema Mycologicum'', described the imperfect state of the fungus under the name ''Tremella sarcoides''. The genus name ''Coryne'' was first used in 1851 by Bonorden, who proposed ''Coryne sarcoides'' for the imperfect state; in 1865 the Tulasne brothers (Charles
Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English language, English and French language, French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic, Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''* ...
and Louis René) used ''Coryne'' to refer to both the perfect and imperfect forms. It was designated the type species
In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...
for the genus in a 1931 publication by Clements and Shear.
Several decades later it became apparent that the name ''Coryne sarcoides'' violated the naming conventions imposed by fungal taxonomists—specifically, the species was named after the imperfect state, so in 1967, Groves and Wilson proposed the new genus name ''Ascocoryne'' to accommodate the perfect state.[ The conidial state of this fungus is ''Coryne dubia'' Persoon ex S.F. Gray (synonymous with ''Pirobasidium sarcoides'' von Hoehnel).][ The ]specific epithet
In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...
is derived from Greek
Greek may refer to:
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
and means "fleshy, flesh-like", from σάρξ (''sarx'', ''sarc''- in compounds), "flesh", and the common adjectival ending -οειδής (-''oeides''), "similar, -like".
Description
This fungus is characterized by a fruiting body
The sporocarp (also known as fruiting body, fruit body or fruitbody) of fungi is a multicellular structure on which spore-producing structures, such as basidia or asci, are borne. The fruitbody is part of the sexual phase of a fungal life cyc ...
(technically an apothecium
An ascocarp, or ascoma (: ascomata), is the fruiting body ( sporocarp) of an ascomycete phylum fungus. It consists of very tightly interwoven hyphae and millions of embedded asci, each of which typically contains four to eight ascospores. Ascoc ...
) with a pinkish-purple color and more or less gelatinous consistency. The apothecia, typically in diameter, start with a roughly spherical shape, then eventually flatten out to become shallowly cup-shaped with a wavy edge and smooth upper surface. The lower surface may be covered with small particles (granular), and the apothecia are either attached directly to the growing surface (sessile
Sessility, or sessile, may refer to:
* Sessility (motility), organisms which are not able to move about
* Sessility (botany), flowers or leaves that grow directly from the stem or peduncle of a plant
* Sessility (medicine), tumors and polyps that ...
), or have a rudimentary stem.[ The apothecia are accompanied by a conidial form, where non-sexual spores are generated. The conidial form consists of sporodochia, a cushion-like asexual fruiting body mass consisting of short conidiophores (specialized stalks that bear conidia). The sporodochia are similar in color and consistency to the apothecia but very variable in shape, typically club-, spoon-, or tongue-shaped, and bearing minute, cylindrical, straight or curved conidia.][ As the fungus matures and the apothecia enlarge and press against each other, the apothecia coalesce to form a gelatinous, irregular mass.] The flesh
Flesh is any aggregation of soft tissues of an organism. Various multicellular organisms have soft tissues that may be called "flesh". In mammals, including humans, ''flesh'' encompasses muscles, fats and other loose connective tissues, ...
, similar to the appearance of the fungus, is pinkish-purple and gelatinous. The odor and taste of ''A. sarcoides'' are not distinctive.[ ''Ascocoryne sarcoides'' is not considered ]edible
An edible item is any item that is safe for humans to eat. "Edible" is differentiated from " eatable" because it does not indicate how an item tastes, only whether it is fit to be eaten. Nonpoisonous items found in nature – such as some mushroo ...
.[
]
Microscopic features
The spores
In biology, a spore is a unit of sexual (in fungi) or asexual reproduction that may be adapted for dispersal and for survival, often for extended periods of time, in unfavourable conditions. Spores form part of the life cycles of many plant ...
are translucent (hyaline
A hyaline substance is one with a glassy appearance. The word is derived from , and .
Histopathology
Hyaline cartilage is named after its glassy appearance on fresh gross pathology. On light microscopy of H&E stained slides, the extracellula ...
), smooth, have an ellipsoid shape, with dimensions of 12–16 by 3–5 μm
The micrometre (Commonwealth English as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures; SI symbol: μm) or micrometer (American English), also commonly known by the non-SI term micron, is a unit of length in the International System ...
. Spores contain one or two oil droplets. The spore print
300px, Making a spore print of the mushroom ''Volvariella volvacea'' shown in composite: (photo lower half) mushroom cap laid on white and dark paper; (photo upper half) cap removed after 24 hours showing warm orange ("tussock") color spore print. ...
is white. The imperfect (conidial) form of the fungus produces smooth, hyaline spores that are 3–3.5 by 1–2 μm. The asci (sexual spore-bearing cells) have a cylindrical shape, with dimensions of 115–125 by 8–10 μm. The paraphyses
Paraphyses are erect sterile filament-like support structures occurring among the reproductive apparatuses of fungi, ferns, bryophytes and some thallophytes. The singular form of the word is paraphysis.
In certain fungi, they are part of the f ...
(sterile filamentous cells interspersed among the asci) are cylindrical with slightly swollen tips, and few branches.[
]
Similar species
''Ascocoryne cylichnium'', another small and gelatinous violet-colored species, has apothecia that are more often cup-shaped, and has larger spores (20–24 by 5.5–6 μm).[ Because of its resemblance to the ]jelly fungi
Jelly fungi are a paraphyletic group of several heterobasidiomycete fungal orders from different classes of the subphylum Agaricomycotina: Tremellales, Dacrymycetales, Auriculariales and Sebacinales. These fungi are so named because their f ...
, ''A. sarcoides'' has been mistaken for the basidiomycete species '' Auricularia auricula'' and '' Tremella foliacea''. ''T. foliacea'' is larger, brown, and leafy in appearance. ''A. auricula'' is also larger, typically brown, is disc- or ear-shaped, with a ribbed undersurface. Microscopically, ''Tremella foliacea'' and ''A. auricula'' are easily distinguished from ''A. sarcoides'' by the presence of basidia (rather than asci).
Other similar species include '' Bulgaria inquinans'' and ''Exidia glandulosa
''Exidia glandulosa'' is a species of fungus in the family Auriculariaceae. In the UK, it has the recommended English name of witch's butter. In North America it has variously been called black witches' butter, black jelly roll, or warty jelly fu ...
'', and some of the genus ''Pachyella
''Pachyella'' is a genus of fungi in the family Pezizaceae. It was circumscription (taxonomy), circumscribed by Jean Louis Émile Boudier in 1907.
References
Pezizaceae
Pezizales genera
{{Pezizomycetes-stub ...
'' (usually producing darker, wider, and flatter discs).
Habitat and distribution
This species has a broad distribution in forested areas of North America and Europe. A saprobic
Saprotrophic nutrition or lysotrophic nutrition is a process of chemoheterotrophic extracellular digestion involved in the processing of decayed (dead or waste) organic matter. It occurs in saprotrophs, and is most often associated with fungi ...
fungus, it derives nutrients from decaying organic matter
Organic matter, organic material or natural organic matter is the large source of carbon-based compounds found within natural and engineered, terrestrial, and aquatic environments. It is matter composed of organic compounds that have come fro ...
, and as such is usually found growing on the stumps and logs of fallen deciduous
In the fields of horticulture and botany, the term deciduous () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed Leaf, leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...
trees. However, it is also found on a variety of living trees as well. For example, in Europe it has been found on the stems of living spruce (''Picea abies
''Picea abies'', the Norway spruce or European spruce, is a species of spruce native to Northern Europe, Northern, Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe.
It has branchlets that typically hang downwards, and the largest cones of any spruce, ...
'') in Finland,[ France,][ Great Britain,][ Norway,][ and Germany.][
Other collections sites include Australia,][ Chile, China,][ Cuba,][ Iceland,][ Korea,][ and Taiwan.][ In ]Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...
, it grows on trunks of fallen '' Cibotium''[ and '']Aleurites
''Aleurites'' is a small genus of arborescent flowering plants in the Euphorbiaceae, first described as a genus in 1776. It is native to China, the Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia, Papuasia, and Queensland. It is also reportedly naturalized o ...
'' trees.[ ''A. sarcoides'' occurs most frequently in late summer and autumn.][
]
Role in tree decay
A number of field studies conducted in the boreal forest
Taiga or tayga ( ; , ), also known as boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by pinophyta, coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruces, and larches. The taiga, or boreal forest, is the world's largest land biome. I ...
region of Northern Ontario
Northern Ontario is a primary geographic and quasi-administrative region of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario, the other primary region being Southern Ontario. Most of the core geographic region is located on p ...
(Canada) showed that ''A. sarcoides'' was found to be frequently associated with various deciduous
In the fields of horticulture and botany, the term deciduous () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed Leaf, leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...
and coniferous
Conifers () are a group of conifer cone, cone-bearing Spermatophyte, seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the phylum, division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a sin ...
tree hosts that had been affected by the fungal disease known as heart rot
In trees, heart rot is a fungal disease that causes the decay of wood at the center of the trunk and branches. Fungi enter the tree through wounds in the bark and decay the heartwood. The diseased heartwood softens, making trees structurally wea ...
; this discovery was noted as unusual, as most fungal tree infections are known to be caused by basidiomycetes
Basidiomycota () is one of two large division (mycology), divisions that, together with the Ascomycota, constitute the subkingdom Dikarya (often referred to as the "higher fungi") within the kingdom Fungi. Members are known as basidiomycetes. Mor ...
, not ascomycetes
Ascomycota is a phylum of the kingdom Fungi that, together with the Basidiomycota, forms the subkingdom Dikarya. Its members are commonly known as the sac fungi or ascomycetes. It is the largest phylum of Fungi, with over 64,000 species. The de ...
.[ In the case of the commercially valuable tree species black spruce ('']Picea mariana
''Picea mariana'', the black spruce, is a North American species of spruce tree in the Pinaceae, pine family. It is widespread across Canada, found in all 10 provinces and all 3 Canadian Arctic Lands, territories. It is the official tree of Newfo ...
''), it was determined that prior colonization by ''A. sarcoides'' reduces the incidence of subsequent infection by common fungal pathogens, such as '' Fomes pini'' and '' Scytinostroma galactina''; furthermore, ''A. sarcoides'' can exist in the wood with no noticeable harmful effects on the host.[ A similar relationship was shown later to exist with jack pine trees (species '']Pinus banksiana
Jack pine (''Pinus banksiana''), also known as grey pine or scrub pine, is a North American pine.
Distribution and habitat
Its native range in Canada is east of the Rocky Mountains from the Mackenzie River in the Northwest Territories to Cape ...
''), whereby ''A. sarcoides'' inhibited '' Peniophora pseudopini'', but had little effect on the subsequent growth of ''Fomes pini''.[ The study also showed that ''A. sarcoides'' is isolated more frequently from defective wood as the age of the tree increases (trees examined in the study were over 80 years old), and that it can infect both uninfected ]heartwood
Wood is a structural tissue/material found as xylem in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulosic fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin t ...
as well as previously decayed wood; in the latter case it usually coexists with the causal fungi.
Research
Bioactive compounds
Terphenylquinones Terphenylquinones are fungal dyes from the group of Phenyl group, phenyl-substituted P-Benzoquinone, ''p''-benzoquinones having the following general structure.
General chemical structure of terphenylquinones
Also derivatives with a central O-Benzo ...
are chemical compounds that are widely distributed among the fungi. ''Ascocoryne sarcoides'' has been shown to contain a terphenylquinone named ascocorynin—a chemical derivative
In mathematics, the derivative is a fundamental tool that quantifies the sensitivity to change of a function's output with respect to its input. The derivative of a function of a single variable at a chosen input value, when it exists, is t ...
of the compound benzoquinone Benzoquinone (C6H4O2) is a quinone with a single benzene ring. There are 2 (out of 3 hypothetical) benzoquinones:
* 1,4-Benzoquinone, most commonly, right image (also ''para''-benzoquinone, ''p''-benzoquinone, ''para''-quinone, or just quinone)
* ...
. This pigment
A pigment is a powder used to add or alter color or change visual appearance. Pigments are completely or nearly solubility, insoluble and reactivity (chemistry), chemically unreactive in water or another medium; in contrast, dyes are colored sub ...
, when in alkaline
In chemistry, an alkali (; from the Arabic word , ) is a basic salt of an alkali metal or an alkaline earth metal. An alkali can also be defined as a base that dissolves in water. A solution of a soluble base has a pH greater than 7.0. The ...
solution, turns a dark violet
Violet may refer to:
Common meanings
* Violet (color), a spectral color with wavelengths shorter than blue
* One of a list of plants known as violet, particularly:
** ''Viola'' (plant), a genus of flowering plants
Places United States
* Vi ...
, similar in color to the fruit bodies of the fungus. Ascocorynin has moderate antibiotic
An antibiotic is a type of antimicrobial substance active against bacteria. It is the most important type of antibacterial agent for fighting pathogenic bacteria, bacterial infections, and antibiotic medications are widely used in the therapy ...
activity, and was shown in laboratory tests to inhibit the growth of several gram-positive bacteria
In bacteriology, gram-positive bacteria are bacteria that give a positive result in the Gram stain test, which is traditionally used to quickly classify bacteria into two broad categories according to their type of cell wall.
The Gram stain ...
, including the widely distributed food spoilage organism ''Bacillus stearothermophilus
''Geobacillus stearothermophilus'' (previously ''Bacillus stearothermophilus'') is a rod-shaped, Gram-positive bacterium and a member of the phylum Bacillota. The bacterium is a thermophile and is widely distributed in soil, hot springs, ocean se ...
''; however, it has no effect on the growth on gram-negative bacteria
Gram-negative bacteria are bacteria that, unlike gram-positive bacteria, do not retain the Crystal violet, crystal violet stain used in the Gram staining method of bacterial differentiation. Their defining characteristic is that their cell envelo ...
, nor does it have any antifungal
An antifungal medication, also known as an antimycotic medication, is a pharmaceutical fungicide or fungistatic used to treat and prevent mycosis such as athlete's foot, ringworm, candidiasis (thrush), serious systemic infections such as ...
activity.[
]
Volatile organic compounds
In 2008, an isolate of ''A. sarcoides'' was observed to produce a series of volatiles including 6 to 9 carbon alcohols, ketones and alkanes. This mixture was called "Mycodiesel" because of its similarity to some existing fuel mixtures. The researchers have suggested that this, combined with its ability to digest cellulose
Cellulose is an organic compound with the chemical formula, formula , a polysaccharide consisting of a linear chain of several hundred to many thousands of glycosidic bond, β(1→4) linked glucose, D-glucose units. Cellulose is an important s ...
, make it a potential source of biofuel
Biofuel is a fuel that is produced over a short time span from Biomass (energy), biomass, rather than by the very slow natural processes involved in the formation of fossil fuels such as oil. Biofuel can be produced from plants or from agricu ...
. The isolate was originally identified at ''Gliocladium roseum
''Clonostachys rosea'' f. ''rosea'', also known as ''Gliocladium roseum'' and commonly called the rose bracket, is a species of fungus in the family Bionectriaceae. It colonizes living plants as an endophyte, digests material in soil as a sapro ...
''but its taxonomy was later revised to ''Ascococoryne sarcoides''. Its genome was sequenced in 2012 in an effort to determine the genetic basis for the production of these volatiles.
References
External links
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2866408
Helotiaceae
Fungi described in 1781
Fungi of Asia
Fungi native to Australia
Fungi of North America
Fungi of Europe
Inedible fungi
Fungus species