''Microbotryum silenes-dioicae'' is a species of fungus first isolated from
Brittany
Brittany ( ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the north-west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica in Roman Gaul. It became an Kingdom of Brittany, independent kingdom and then a Duch ...
, France. Its name refers to its host species, ''
Silene dioica
''Silene dioica'' (synonym (taxonomy), syn. ''Melandrium rubrum''), known as red campion and red catchfly, is a herbaceous flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae, native to Europe and introduced to the Americas.
Description
It is a biennia ...
''. The fungus is the cause of anther-smut disease, which results in fungal spores replacing the pollen in the anthers. The species that most resembles ‘’M. silenes-dioicae’’ morphologically is ''
M. lychnidis-dioicae''.
[Denchev, Cvetomir M., Tatiana Giraud, and Michael E. Hood. "Three new species of anthericolous smut fungi on Caryophyllaceae." Mycologia Balcanica6 (2009): 79-84.]
Description
This species shows
sori arranged in
anther
The stamen (: stamina or stamens) is a part consisting of the male reproductive organs of a flower. Collectively, the stamens form the androecium., p. 10
Morphology and terminology
A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filament ...
s. Its
spore
In biology, a spore is a unit of sexual reproduction, sexual (in fungi) or asexual reproduction that may be adapted for biological dispersal, dispersal and for survival, often for extended periods of time, in unfavourable conditions. Spores fo ...
mass is powdery and brown. The spores are mainly globose, subglobose or ellipsoidal, measuring 6.5–10.5 by 5.5–9.0
μm and being pale coloured. The spore wall is reticulate, presenting 6–8 meshes per spore diameter, the latter being irregularly polygonal.
In culture
In 1869, the English suffragette
Lydia Becker presented to the British Association for the Advancement of Science her theory that the fungus causes female flowers of its host to become hermaphroditic, informing her later work in gender studies.
References
Further reading
*Abbate, J. L., and M. E. Hood. "Dynamic linkage relationships to the mating‐type locus in automictic fungi of the genus Microbotryum." Journal of Evolutionary Biology 23.8 (2010): 1800–1805.
*Vercken, Elodie, et al. "Glacial refugia in pathogens: European genetic structure of anther smut pathogens on Silene latifolia and Silene dioica." PLoS Pathog 6 (2010): e1001229.
*Gladieux, Pierre, et al. "Maintenance of fungal pathogen species that are specialized to different hosts: allopatric divergence and introgression through secondary contact." Molecular Biology and Evolution 28.1 (2011): 459–471.
External links
*
Mycobank
Fungal plant pathogens and diseases
Microbotryales
Fungi described in 2009
Fungus species
{{fungus-plant-disease-stub