Skeletocutis | |
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Skeletocutis nivea on dead branch of common hazel; Slovenia | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Fungi |
Division: | Basidiomycota |
Class: | Agaricomycetes |
Order: | Polyporales |
Family: | Incrustoporiaceae |
Genus: | Skeletocutis Kotl. & Pouzar (1958) |
Type species | |
Skeletocutis amorpha (Fr.) Kotl. & Pouzar (1958) | |
Synonyms [1] | |
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Skeletocutis is a genus of about 40 species of poroid fungi in the family Polyporaceae. The genus has a cosmopolitan distribution, although most species are found in the Northern Hemisphere. It causes a white rot in a diverse array of woody substrates, and the fruit bodies grow as a crust on the surface of the decaying wood. Sometimes the edges of the crust are turned outward to form rudimentary bracket-like caps.
Skeletocutis is primarily distinguished from similar genera of wood-rotting fungi by microscopic features, especially by the sausage-shaped to ellipsoid spores, and spiny crystals covering certain hyphae in the pore tissue. The genus was circumscribed by Czech mycologists František Kotlaba and Zdenek Pouzar in 1958, with Skeletocutis amorpha as the type species.
The fruit bodies of Skeletocutis are annual to perennial. They are resupinate (crust-like) to pileate (that is, with a cap). When caps are present, their colour is typically white, cream-pink, or lilac, although the fruit body tends to discolour somewhat when dry. The pores are small and round to irregular in shape. Many Skeletocutis species have a zone of dense cartilaginous tissue above the tube layer; [2] this zone has a gelatinous texture when fresh. [3]
The hyphal system is dimitic or trimitic. The generative hyphae have clamps, and are often encrusted with spiny crystals, particularly in the dissepiments (tissue that is found between the pores). The skeletal hyphae are hyaline (translucent). [2] Although typically only the generative hyphae of Skeletocutis fungi have incrustations, three species are reported to have apical incrustations on the skeletal hyphae: S. alutacea and S. percandida, and S. novae-zelandiae. Ţura and colleagues suggest that the "taxonomy of these species is poorly worked-out." [4]
Cystidia are absent in the hymenium, but cystidioles are present in most species. [2] The spores are smooth, [3] hyaline, and have an allantoid (sausage-like) to cylindric to ellipsoid shape. They do not have reaction with Melzer's reagent. [2] The basidia (spore-bearing cells) are club shaped to barrel shaped and four spored, [3] measuring 8–15 by 4–5 μm. [5] Although the majority of Skeletocutis species have thin-walled spores, six species have spores with thick walls: S. alutacea, S. bambusicola, S. borealis, S. krawtzewii, S. percandida, and S. perennis. [6]
Skeletocutis causes a white rot in a diverse array of woody substrates. Although the majority of species are found growing on the dead wood of various conifer and hardwood genera, some are known to grow on the dead fruit bodies of other polypores. For example, S. brevispora feeds on Phellinidium ferrugineofuscum , while S. chrysella eats Phellinus chrysoloma . [2] The tropical Chinese species S. bambusicola grows on dead bamboo. [6] S. percandida has been reported growing on exotic bamboos cultivated in France. [7] In the Daxing'anling forest areas of northeastern China, S. ochroalba has been found growing on charred wood after forest fires, and may be a pioneer species for this substrate. [8]
In the southern part of the Russian Far East, S. odora is common in aspen forests. It is often found fruiting in association with other fungi, including Fomitopsis rosea , Crustoderma dryinum , Leptoporus mollis , and Phlebia centrifuga . [5] S. odora favours large logs more than 30–50 cm (12–20 in) in diameter. This species is part of the community of fungal successors of decaying wood. A Finnish study found that it fruited most frequently in the third stage (medium decay) of wood decomposition of Norway spruce (Picea abies). In this stage, which occurs about 20–40 years after the death of the plant, the decay penetrates more than 3 cm (1.2 in) into the wood, while the core is still hard. [9] S. carneogrisea and S. kuehneri are successor species that grow on the dead fruit bodies of the polypores Trichaptum abietinum and T. fuscoviolaceum . [10] [11]
Skeletocutis has a cosmopolitan distribution, although most species are found in the Northern Hemisphere. [12] Leif Ryvarden considered 22 species to occur in Europe in his 2014 work Poroid Fungi of Europe. [2] Viacheslav Spirin reported 13 species in Russia in 2005. [5] Twenty-two species have been recorded in China. [6] [13]
In Europe, Skeletocutis odora appears on the national Red Lists of threatened fungi in 5 countries and is one of 33 species of fungi proposed for international conservation under the Bern Convention. Its natural habitat is threatened by deforestation and loss of thick fallen logs typical of old-growth forests. [14] In Estonia, S. odora and S. stellae are used as indicator species to help assess whether forest stands should be protected. They are associated with old-growth forest areas that have been minimally impacted by humans. [15] In contrast, S. lilacina is found exclusively in selectively logged forests, while S. stellae inhabits both types of forest. [16] The Argentinian species S. nothofagi, known only from Tierra del Fuego, has been proposed for inclusion in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species due to its highly restricted distribution and rare occurrence. [17]
The genus was circumscribed by Czech mycologists František Kotlába and Zdeněk Pouzar in 1958 with Skeletocutis amorpha (originally described as Polyporus amorphus by Elias Magnus Fries in 1815 [18] ) as the type and only species. [19] The generic name Skeletocutis is derived from the Ancient Greek word σκελετός (skeleto, "dried up") and the Latin word cutis ("skin"). [20]
Other genera that feature encrustations in the hyphae of the dissepiment edges include Tyromyces and Piloporia . [6] Molecular analyses has shown the close phylogenetic relationship between Skeletocutis and Tyromyces. [21] [22] These two genera group together in the tyromyces clade, on a branch lying outside of the core polyporoid clade, [23] or in the "residual polypore clade" of Tomšovský and colleagues. [24]
Two species formerly placed in Skeletocutis, S. lenis (P.Karst.) Niemelä and S. vulgaris (Fr.) Niemelä & Y.C.Dai, were transferred to the new genus Sidera based on molecular analysis. Although Sidera is placed in a different order (Hymenochaetales), it shares many characteristic features with Skeletocutis, including whitish resupinate basidiocarps (in many species) with small pores, and narrow skeletal hyphae. In contrast with Skeletocutis, however, the hyphae in Sidera comprising the dissepiment edge are smooth or covered with only a few faceted crystal clusters. [25]
In 1963, Polish mycologist Stanislaw Domanski circumscribed the genus Incrustoporia (typified by Poria stellae) to contain several polypores featuring encrusted hyphae at the dissepiments. [26] In 1969, John Ericksson and Åke Strid added Polyporus semipileatus Peck to the genus. [27] The taxonomic placement of this fungus had long before confused mycologists, who had given it a variety of scientific names. [28] Three years before, Pouzar created the genus Leptotrimitus to contain this fungus, as he was not satisfied with other possible generic placements. The main distinguishing feature of Leptotrimitus was the presence of trimitic hyphae. [29] In 1971, Marinus Anton Donk reunited Incrustoporia and Leptotrimitus, as he did not believe that the trimitic character alone was a sufficient criterion for delineating a new genus when so many other characters were identical. [30] Jean Keller studied the ultrastructure of the encrusted hyphae of Incrustoporia species using electron microscopy. He determined that, with the exception of I. carneola, the crystallizations were similar in all instances. The crystals of I. carneola were in the shape of small regular parallelepipeds—clearly distinct from the spiny crystal structures characteristic of the rest of Incrustoporia. Because Skeletocutis was published earlier, it had priority over the generic name Incrustoporia, and so Keller transferred the remaining six species to Skeletocutis in 1989: S. alutacea, S. nivea, S. percandida, S. stellae, S. subincarnata, and S. tschulymica. [28] Incrustoporia carneola was transferred to Junghuhnia as J. carneola . [31]
The inclusion of several monomitic species by Alix David in 1982 (S. azorica, S. jelicii, S. portcrosensis and S. subsphaerospora) [32] was controversial, [33] as mycologists Leif Ryvarden and Robert Lee Gilbertson (1993, 1994) [34] [35] and Annarosa Bernicchia (2005) [36] transferred them to or accepted them in Ceriporiopsis . Later molecular work demonstrated that two of these monomitic species, S. azorica and S. subsphaerospora, are phylogenetically much closer to the Skeletocutis-Tyromyces sensu stricto group of species than to Ceriporiopsis, [24] and the current concept of Skeletocutis includes monomitic species. [25] S. jelicii and S. portcrosensis remain in Ceriporiopsis. [37] [38]
A 2008 estimate placed around 30 species in the widely distributed genus. [39] As of September 2016 [update] , the nomenclatural database Index Fungorum accepts 41 species. [40]
The taxon S. australis, described from South America by Mario Rajchenberg in 1987, [76] was later placed by him in synonymy with the species S. stramentica, originally described from New Zealand. [70]
Index Fungorum shows 66 taxa associated with the generic name Skeletocutis. Several species once placed in this genus have since been moved to other genera:
The Polyporaceae are a family of poroid fungi belonging to the Basidiomycota. The flesh of their fruit bodies varies from soft to very tough. Most members of this family have their hymenium in vertical pores on the underside of the caps, but some of them have gills or gill-like structures. Many species are brackets, but others have a definite stipe – for example, Polyporus badius.
Postia is a genus of brown rot fungi in the family Fomitopsidaceae.
Cerrena is a genus of poroid fungi in the family Polyporaceae. The genus was circumscribed by Samuel Frederick Gray in 1821. Gray's type species, Cerrena cinerea, is now known as C. unicolor.
Haploporus is a genus of poroid fungi in the family Polyporaceae.
Ceriporiopsis is a genus of fungi in the family Phanerochaetaceae. The genus is widely distributed, and, according to a 2008 estimate, contains about 25 species. Ceriporiopsis was circumscribed in 1963 by Polish mycologist Stanislaw Domanski. The genus is a wastebasket taxon, containing "species that share common macroscopic and microscopic characteristics, but are not necessarily related." Ceriporiopsis species are crust fungi that cause a white rot. They have a monomitic hyphal system, containing only generative hyphae, and these hyphae have clamp connections.
Ceriporia is a widely distributed genus of crust fungi.
Antrodiella is a genus of fungi in the family Steccherinaceae of the order Polyporales.
Gelatoporia is a fungal genus in the family Gelatoporiaceae. This is a monotypic genus, containing the single widely distributed species Gelatoporia subvermispora. The genus was circumscribed in 1985 by Finnish mycologist Tuomo Niemelä to contain poroid crust fungi with a monomitic hyphal structure, clamped hyphae, and producing white rot.
Aurantiporus is a genus of poroid fungi in the family Meruliaceae. Circumscribed by American mycologist William Alphonso Murrill in 1905, the genus contains five species found mostly in northern temperate regions. Molecular analysis of several Aurantiporus species suggests that the genus is not monophyletic, but some other related polypore species need to be sequenced and studied before appropriate taxonomic changes can be made. In 2018, Viktor Papp and Bálint Dima proposed a new genus Odoria to contain Aurantiporus alborubescens based on multigene phylogenetic analyses. The generic name is derived from the Latin aurantius ("orange") and the Ancient Greek πόρος (pore).
Datronia is a genus of poroid crust fungi in the family Polyporaceae. The genus was circumscribed by Marinus Anton Donk in 1966, with Datronia mollis as the type species. Datronia fungi cause a white rot in hardwoods. Datronia contains six species found in northern temperate areas. The most recent addition, Datronia ustulatiligna, was described in 2015 from Himachal Pradesh in India.
Grammothelopsis is a fungal genus in the family Polyporaceae. It was circumscribed in 1982 by Swiss mycologist Walter Jülich, with Grammothelopsis macrospora as the type species.
Megasporoporia is a genus of four species of crust fungi in the family Polyporaceae. The genus is characterized by its large spores, and dextrinoid skeletal hyphae.
Oligoporus is a genus of fungi in the family Polyporaceae. The genus was circumscribed by German mycologist Julius Oscar Brefeld in 1888 with Oligoporus farinosus as the type. This species is currently known as Postia rennyi. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek words ὀλίγος ("few") and πόρος ("pore").
Tyromyces is a genus of poroid fungi in the family Polyporaceae. It was circumscribed by mycologist Petter Karsten in 1881. The type species is the widely distributed Tyromyces chioneus, commonly known as the white cheese polypore. The phylogenetic position of Tyromyces within the Polyporales is uncertain, but it appears that it does not belong to the "core polyporoid clade". Tyromyces is polyphyletic as it is currently circumscribed, and has been described as "a dumping place for monomitic white-rot species with thin-walled spores."
Skeletocutis brevispora is a species of poroid crust fungus in the family Polyporaceae. It was described as new to science in 1998 by Finnish mycologist Tuomo Niemelä.
Skeletocutis brunneomarginata is a species of poroid crust fungus in the family Polyporaceae. Found in the United States, it was described as new to science in 2007 by Norwegian mycologist Leif Ryvarden. He collected the type in Bent Creek Experimental Forest, North Carolina in 2004. The fungus is very similar in appearance to Skeletocutis kühneri, but with a brown margin and subiculum. S. brunneomarginata is one of 14 Skeletocutis species that occurs in North America.
Amyloporia is a genus of five species of crust fungi in the family Polyporaceae. Its main distinguishing characteristic is the amyloid reaction of the skeletal hyphae, although some authors do not consider this to be sufficient to distinguish Amyloporia from the related genus Antrodia.
Rickiopora is a fungal genus of unknown familial placement in the order Polyporales. The genus is monotypic, containing the single neotropical species Rickiopora latemarginata.
The Gelatoporiaceae are a small family of crust fungi in the order Polyporales. The family was circumscribed in 2017 by mycologists Otto Miettinen, Alfredo Justo and David Hibbett to contain the type genus Gelatoporia and three other related genera, Cinereomyces, Obba, and Sebipora.
Skeletocutis stramentica is a species of poroid fungus in the family Polyporaceae that is found in New Zealand.