VOL 44 2015 MYCOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF INDIA President PROF. B. N. JOHRI Past President PROF. T. SATYANARAYANA Vice President DR. M.V. DESHPANDE Secretary PROF. N. RAAMAN Treasurer PROF. M. SUDHAKARA REDDY Editor PROF. N.S. ATRI Editorial Board PROF. NILS HALLEMBERG, PROF. URMAS KOLJALG, PROF. B.P.R. VITTAL, PROF. ASHOK CHAVAN, PROF. S. MOHAN, KARUPPAYIL, PROF. M. CHANDRASEKARAN, PROF. K. MANJUNATH, DR. S.K. DESHMUKH, DR. R.C. UPADHYAY, PROF. SARITA W. NAZARETH, DR. M.V. DESHPANDE, DR. MUNRUCHI KAUR Members of Council PROF. N.K. DUBEY, DR. SAJAL SAJU DEO, DR. RUPAM KAPOOR, PROF. YASHPAL SHARMA, DR. AVNEET PAL SINGH, DR. SANJAY K. SINGH, DR. CHINTHALA PARAMAGEETHAM, DR. K.B. PURUSHOTHAMA, DR. K. SAMBANDAN, DR. SATISH KUMAR VERMA The Mycological Society of India was founded in January 1973 with a view to bring together the mycologists of the country and with the broad objective of promoting the development of Mycology in India in all its aspects and in the widest perspective. Memebership is open to all interested in mycology. The Life Member subscription is Rs. 3000+50/- in India and £100 or US$ 200 for those in abroad. The annual member subscription is Rs. 500+50/- in India and £20 or US $ 40 for those in abroad. Subscriptions are to be sent to the Treasurer,Prof. M. Sudhakara Reddy, Department of Biotechnology, Thaper University, Patiala-147004, Punjab, India (Email: [email protected] ). All general correspondence should be addressed toProf. N.Raaman, Secretary, MSI, C.A.S. in Botany, University of Madras, Guindy Campus, Chennai-600 025, India(Email: [email protected] ). Manuscripts for publication and books for review may be sent toEditor, Prof. N.S. Atri , Department of Botany, Punjabi University, Patiala-147002 Punjab, India(Emails: [email protected]; [email protected] ). Disclaimer: The data, figures, graphs and views expressed in the individual papers are author's own and the responsibility forthesethings lies with theauthor's of the individual paperthemselves. The name of the journalKAVAKA is a Sanskrit word which means Fungus. ISSN 0379-5179 ISSN-L 0379-5179 Copyright @ 2015 Mycological Society of India www.fungiindia.co.in (All back volumes are available on website) From the Editor’s Desk The Presidential address by Prof. T. Satyanarayana during the 41st annual meeting of the Mycological Society of India held at the Department of Botany, Punjabi University, Patiala on February 23, 2015 is a welcome call to the mycological fraternity to work for the growth and rejuvenation of the subject of mycology at all levels so that it becomes the subject of preference for study by the youngsters. This can be done by inculcating interest in the field of mycology at school, college and university level for which course curricula have to be designed by including socially relevant applied topics of the subject in the syllabus. To generate interest in the subject and to make it more attractive, there is a need to assign small projects in the identification and characterization of fungi affecting our surrounding environment including multipurpose plants, crops, food stuffs, fruits, vegetables, etc. and on those growing in lawns, along road sides and forested areas during monsoon season. This will definitely help the youngsters in understanding the role of fungi in nature and create interest in them to uptake further studies on various aspects of these microbes when such students join Post Graduate Programmes in the Colleges and Universities. Mycologists need to play a proactive role at all levels especially in the University Departments and Research Institutes to make the researches in mycology more attractive and application based so that bright students are attracted to nurture the field. It is essential to undertake collaborative projects with various scientists specialized in different branches of science in general and biology in particular. This will definitely help to produce a new generation of mycologists well versed in basic and applied aspects, which is the need of the day to take the field of mycology to its pristine glory that once it enjoyed in India 20-08-2015 N.S. Atri Editor: KAVAKA Professor of Botany Punjabi University, Patiala-147 002, Punjab INDIA 1 KAVAKA 44: 1-5(2015) Reviving intrest in mycology to regain the pristine glory that once it enjoyed in India T. Satyanarayana Department of Microbiology, University of Delhi South Campus, Benito Juarez Road, New Delhi-110021 Corresponding author Email: [email protected] ABSTRACT Among the estimated 1.5 million fungal species present on the Earth, approximately 100,000 species have been described so far, which accounts for 6.7% of the estimated fungal diversity. Extensive efforts have been made in India to understand the diversity of culturable fungi that led to the discovery and description of several new fungal genera and species in the last 50-60 years. The fresh efforts must continue to cultivate and describe fungal species yet to be described. Since we are able to cultivate only a small fraction of microbes from the extant microflora in any environmental sample, non-culturable metagenomic approaches must also be employed to understand the diversity of fungi. The students Prof. T. Satyanarayana of mycology must be conversant with the modern President MSI 2014-15 approaches such as molecular techniques to unravel the diversity of fungi in natural diversity and fungal diversity. Approximately 100,000 environments. In order to strengthen MSI, we species of fungi have been described that accounts for must welcome and enroll biologists working on about 6.7% of the estimated fungal species, suggesting various aspects of fungi such as physiology and that there is a scope for discovering new fungal species. biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology, genomics, metagenomics and metabolomics, and We are able to culture only 0.1-1.0% of the extant molecular systematics. The work that has been microbial diversity in any of the environmental sample, going on in our laboratory on thermophilic fungi the recently evolved molecular metagenomic and culture- and yeasts and their enzymes with multifarious independent methods must, therefore, be employed for applications are very briefly discussed understanding fungal diversity, besides the culture- Keywords: Thermophilic fungi, diversity, enzymes, dependent approaches. applications. Significant and praiseworthy attempts have been made in INTRODUCTION India by C.V. Subramanian, C. Manoharachari, K.G. Mukherjee, K.S. Thind, A.K. Sarbhoy, S.B. Saxena, M.J. I deem it a matter of immense pleasure to be the President Thirumalachar, K. Natarajan, G.P. Agarwal, to mention a of the prestigious Mycological Society of India during few among several others, and their students to 2014-2015. I wish to place on record my gratitude for all understand the diversity of culturable fungi in soil, water, the members for electing me to be the president of MSI. I atmospheric and other environments. Despite the limited wish to pay my humble respect to all the past presidents government funding, the efforts to retrieve new and yet to and office bearers of MSI who have contributed be discovered fungal species and their exploitation must significantly for the growth and sustenance of the society. continue. Novel organisms could be sources of novel Thanks are also due to Prof. M.I.S. Saggoo (Head & genes/gene clusters that encode useful enzymes, primary Coordinator, Department of Botany) and Prof. N.S. Atri and secondary metabolites, and disease causing and/or (Organising Secretary) for hosting the symposium and st biocontrol organisms. It is essential to go for 41 Annual meeting of MSI at Punjabi University, Patiala collaborative and joint research efforts to understand during Feb. 23-24, 2015 where the presidential address various aspects of fungi, therefore, we must welcome was presented. scientists working in different branches of biology such According to Hawksworth (1991; 2001), a conservative as physiology and biochemistry, genetics and molecular estimate of fungal diversity extant on the Earth is 1.5 biology, genetic engineering and genomics [structural million species, although this may range between 0.5-9.9 and functional (transcriptomics and proteomics)] and million based on different approaches (Mueller and metabolomics to join MSI for generating interest and Schmit, 2007). Nonetheless Hawksworth recommended attract young students to mycology. The experienced that the working figure of 1.5 million species be retained mycologists must organize training courses to provide until new and independent data sets become available. theoretical as well as practical hands-on training to young This figure is conservative because the estimate of PG students and lecturers. We must do everything that species is based on the observed ratio between plant revives interest in mycology in order to regain the pristine glory that it once enjoyed in India. 2 Reviving intrest in mycology to regain the pristine glory that once it enjoyed in India NEED TO STUDY THE DIVERSITY OF being 2.5 cm and 20, respectively favoured high rate of EXTREMOPHILIC FUNGI decomposition (Johri and Satyanarayana, 1984; Satyanarayana and Johri, 1992). Thermophilic fungi are Most of the work done in India has been on the culturable active in the decomposition of plant organic matter by mycoflora from normal/moderate environments with pH their high colonizing ability, thermal tolerance and by around neutral, temperatures between 20 and 40 °C, air secreting polysaccharide-degrading enzymes like pressure 1.0 atm, and adequate levels of available water, cellulases, xylanases, proteases, amylases, lignin- nutrients and salts. There are many extreme environments degrading enzymes, lipases and others (Satyanarayana et in India such as acidic or hot springs, saline and/or al., 1985; 1988; Satyanarayana and Johri, 1981a; 1983a; alkaline lakes and soils, deserts and the ocean beds, which b; Banerjee et al., 1995; Kamra and Satyanarayana, are too harsh for normal life to exist. Any environmental 2004).