August 2001 Newsletter of the Mycological Society of America
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Supplement to Mycologia Vol. 52(4) August 2001 Newsletter of the Mycological Society of America -- In This Issue -- Ergot in Puerto Rico? by Ángel M. Nieves-Rivera Ergot in Puerto Rico? .............................. 1-2 Questions or comments should be sent to Ángel via the Department of Marine Update on Genomics of Fungi ................. 3-4 Sciences, University of Puerto Rico, P. O. Box 9013, Mayagüez, PR 00681-9013 or MSA Official Business Email ([email protected]). The author thanks Mr A Montes-Vélez, JB Membreño From the President .................................. 4 and Dr J Dahlberg for their assistance during the study. Greetings from APS................................. 5 INCE THE MIDDLE AGES, our knowledge of ergot and ergotism has been MSA Council Express Mail ...................... 5 expanded considerably. Today, ergot is a well-known plant pathogen Biodiversity Committee Ann. Rep’t ....... 6 which has a wide distribution, and is caused by various species of MSA Foray 2001 .................................... 6 S Claviceps on a wide range of gramineous hosts. Numerous Important Notice-Annual Meeting ..... 7 ethnomycological accounts of the infamous malady known as the “Feu de Official Committee Representatives ........ 8-10 St. Antoine”, “Mal des Ardens”, or the ignis sacer (sacred fire) are caused Rogerson Travel Award Auction ...... 11-26 by the filamentous pyrenomycete Claviceps purpurea (Findlay 1982). Forms Curiously, ergot is also known from the salt marsh halophyte, Spartina Change of Address ............................... 7 brasiliensis (Kohlmeyer & Kohlmeyer 1979). Endowment & Contributions ............. 37 In contrast, a least known and related species, C. africana (anamorph Gift Membership ............................... 39 Sphacelia sorghi) was first recorded as a disease on sorghum (Sorghum Society Membership .......................... 40 bicolor) by McRae in 1917 from India (Tegegne et al. 1994). This particular Mycological News ............................... 26-30 species of ergot does not cause ergotism in humans, as far as we know. Mycologist’s Bookshelf ...................... 31-34 Recently, C. africana has been reported from almost all continents, with the No Reviews exceptions of Europe and Mycological Classifieds ....................... 34-35 Antarctica. By 1996, it was Mycological goods & services, journals reported from Latin America available, position announcements (especially Central and South Mycology On-Line ................................... 36 America), the United States Calendar of Events .................................... 36 and from the Greater Antilles Sustaining Members ............................ 38-39 in the Caribbean. Bandyopadhyay et al. ~Important Dates ~ (1998) presented a distribu- August 10: Deadline: Inoculum 52(5) tion map of sorghum ergot August 25-29: MSA 2001 Salt Lake and its pathogens in the June 22-29: MSA 2002, Corvallis OR world. The first reports the Editor: sorghum ergot disease by C. Donald G. Ruch africana in America were recorded in the Brazilian Department of Biology states of Sao Paulo, Minas Ball State University Gerais and Goias in 1995 Muncie, IN 47306-0440 (Reiss et al. 1996). Reports of 765.285.8829 FA X 765.285.8804 sorghum ergot became [email protected] evident in Colombia, MSA Homepage: Honduras and Venezuela in 1996, and for the southern http://msafungi.org U.S., Mexico and the Antilles in 1997. Claviceps africana was first sighted in Puerto Rico on February 20, 1997 Honeydew of Claviceps africana on (Bandyopadhyay et al. 1998; sorghum panicle. been collected on sorghum panicles in its sphacelial form (macroconidia) in honey- dew. Likewise, the distribution of ergot to other local gramineous hosts (eg. S. halepense or Johnson grass) has been carried out mostly by aeolian and water mechanisms. References Bandyopadhyay R, Frederickson DE, McLaren NW, Odvody GN, Ryley MJ. 1998. Honeydew on ground. Ergot: a new disease threat to sorghum in the Americas and Australia. Plant Dis. 82:356-367. tometry analysis of honeydew revealed one dominant saccharide, that contain three Dahlberg J, Odvody G. 1998. Field evaluation of ergot on Puerto Rico by Drs. Jeff Dahlberg hexoses, transformed from sucrose as is and Gary Odvody. NGSP Website <http:// typical of C. africana (Reiss et al. 1996). www.sorghumgrowers.com/Research/ Dr Jeff Dahlberg (pers. comm.) has ergotmemo.html>. suggested that ergot stage of development Findlay WPK. 1982. Fungi: folklore, fiction, is determined by environmental factors; & fact. The Mad River Press, California. while xeric conditions are favorable to ergot Frederickson DE, Mantle PG, de Milliano sclerotial development, humid conditions WAJ. 1991. Claviceps africana sp. nov.: the restricts the fungus to a sphacelial state. distinctive ergot pathogen of sorghum in Africa. This fact has been observed in the field by Mycol. Res. 95:1101-1107. myself and other researchers (eg., GN Frederickson DE, Odvody GN, Montes N, Odvody), where sclerotia of C. africana has Isakeit T. 1999. El ergot del sorgo: diferenciación not been formed because of high humidity. de los esfacelios y los esclerocios de Claviceps Honeydew and secondary conidia In Puerto Rico, the ergot cycle is interrupted africana en la semilla. Publicación del Servicio de coating (C. africana) on sorghum. in the secondary conidial stage, where the Extensión Agrícola de Texas, Sistema whitish-colored panicle indicated the Universitario Texas A&M L-5315S, 7-99. Dahlberg & Odvody 1998). A field eval- production of secondary conidia, which are Kohlmeyer J, Kohlmeyer E. 1979. Marine uation report (memo) was prepared by Drs in turn released and transported into the mycology: the higher fungi. Academic Press, Jeff Dahlberg and Gary Odvody, which environment by wind. Also, fungicolous New York. were part of the staff scientists at the time fungi (eg., Curvularia, Fusarium, Tricho- NGSP [National Grain Sorghum Producers]. (Dahlberg & Odvody 1998; SRI/NGSP derma, and other anamorphs) occur on 1996. Ergot— a global disease threat to 1999). But Puerto Rico is not strange to honeydew exudate. Claviceps africana has sorghum. Suppl. Int. Sorghum Millets Claviceps and ergot. Stevenson (1975) Newsletter 37:1-4. summarized previous collections of other Odvody G, Bandyopadhyay R, Frederiksen Claviceps species (C. maximensis, C. RA, Isakeit T, Kaufman H, Dahlberg J, paspali and Claviceps sp.) in gramineous Velásquez R, Torres H. 1998. Sorghum ergot hosts in Puerto Rico. goes global in less than three years. APSnet, Plant Pathology On-line Website <http:// According to SRI/NGSP (1999), sorghum www.scisoc.org/feature/ergot/top.html>. seeds were infected with C. africana honeydew for the first time in Mayagüez Reiss EM, Mantle PG, Hassan HAG. 1996. First report in the Americas of sorghum ergot (ARS-TARS), Puerto Rico. Then, it was disease, caused by a pathogen diagnosed as treated with several fungicides and sent to Claviceps africana. Plant Dis. 80:463. [Abst.] the ARS Foreign Disease-Weed Science SRI/NGSP [Sorghum Research Information/ Research Laboratory at Fort Detrick, National Grain Sorghum Producers]. 1999. Maryland, for further evaluation. At this National & international sorghum news. NGSP moment, it is highly recommended to use Website <http://www.sorghumgrowers.com/ the fungicides captan or thiram as well as Research/sorghum.html>. preventive measures to keep seed free from Stevenson JA. 1975. Fungi of Puerto Rico and sclerotia (SRI/NGSP 1999). Chemical studies the American Virgin Islands. Braun-Brumfield, in ergot pseudosclerotia by Reiss et al. Ann Arbor, Michigan. (1996) revealed that the alkaloids dihydro- Tegegne G, Bandyopadhyay R, Mulatu T, ergosine and festuclavine are diagnostic of Kebede Y. 1994. Screening for ergot resistance in C. africana, a feature that similarly identified Honeydew exudations on Johnson grass sorghum. Plant Dis. 78:873-876. this African pathogen in Japan. Mass spec- panicle by C. africana. 2 An Update on the Genomics of Fungi by Joan W. Bennett Questions or comments should be send to Dr. Joan W. Bennett at the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA 70118; or phone at 504.862.8101; or email at < [email protected] >. HE FEBRUARY 15, 2001, issue of (Francine Gover, Wageningen University, agreed to release their previously Nature and the February 16, 2001 The Netherlands) and the development propriety data on the Aspergillus Tissue of Science contained of the physical map of Candida albicans nidulans genome. landmark papers about the “completion” (P T McGee, University of Minnesota). “Genome Structure and Maintenance” of the sequencing of the human genome. Announcements about the initiation of was the title of a plenary session The resultant publicity and media genome projects were made for convened by Denise Zickler (University attention about the human genome Phanerochaete chrysosporium, spon- of Paris-Sud, Orsay, France) that explored overshadowed another announcement of sored by the U.S. Department of Energy the interface between genetic and great importance to mycologists. On (Dan Cullen, Forest Products Laboratory, genomic approaches to gene discovery. Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14, 2001, Bruce Madison, Wisconsin) and Aspergillus In an elegant lecture by David Perkins Birren, Chad Nusbaun, Matt Sachs, Jack fumigatus, sponsored by the National (Stanford University), chromosome Kinsey and Chuck Staben sent out an Institute of Health (David Denning, rearrangements were reviewed as a tool understated e-mail announcement