Importance of secondary metabolites in the Xylariaceae as parameters for

Abstract

This paper constitutes a synopsis of our polythetic studies of the Xylariaceae, which was originally compiled in the course of a Habilitation thesis. Based on several thousands of specimens and several hundreds of cultures, morphological studies of the teleomorphs and anamorphs of these fungi were combined with chemotaxonomic studies based on HPLC-DAD/MS profiling, as well as PCR fingerprinting and molecular phylogenetic analyses. Numerous novel pigments and other natural products, many of which were shown to have biological activities were also isolated and identified, and their production in the course of the life cycle of their producer organisms was followed by HPLC profiling and biological assays. Numerous new species and even new genera were recognised in the course of this work. Finally, secondary metabolite production in cultures of Xylariaceae was correlated with molecular data and the production of certain chemotaxonomic marker compounds was found to be strongly correlated with a phylogeny based on ITS nrDNA, demonstrating that secondary metabolite profiles are not only important species-specific characters but even have phylogenetic significance. The work on Xylariaceae is proposed as a model how interdisciplinary, international collaborations can help to increase our understanding of the phylogenetic and evolutionary relationships, as well as the biology of fungal organisms. Similar work on other groups of the Ascomycota and Basidiomycota would certainly be rewarding.

Invertebrate Assemblages on Biscogniauxia Sporocarps on Oak Dead Wood: An Observation Aided by Squirrels

“…It is well-known that squirrels can detect hypogeous sporocarps by smell [47,48]. Xylariaceous ascomycetes effuse a variety of volatiles, depending on the developmental stage of their sporocarps [49], which may be detected by squirrels. McKeever [47] also reported that fungi constitute the largest portion of squirrel diets, particularly in the…”

“…It is well-known that squirrels can detect hypogeous sporocarps by smell [47,48]. Xylariaceous ascomycetes effuse a variety of volatiles, depending on the developmental stage of their sporocarps [49], which may be detected by squirrels. McKeever [47] also reported that fungi constitute the largest portion of squirrel diets, particularly in the summer and early autumn, and represent the second largest portion of their diets in the early spring; however, the majority of the fungi eaten by squirrels may be basidiomycetes [48].…”

Identification and Pathogenicity of Biscogniauxia and Sordaria Species Isolated from Olive Trees

“…Biscogniauxia is a fungal genus belonging to the family Graphostromataceae, the order Xylariales and the class Sordariomycetes. These fungi are renowned as cosmopolitan and omnipresent wood decomposers, as well as prevalent endophytes [29]. The Biscogniauxia genus (basionym Nummularia Tul.…”

Revision of the genus Daldinia in the KRAM herbarium collection: Daldinia childiae, D. loculata and D. loculatoides, three new species for Poland

“…The taxonomy of this genus is based on morphological characters, colour of stromatal pigments, secondary metabolites, anamorph structures and molecular methods (Stadler et al, 2001(Stadler et al, , 2014Guidot et al, 2003;Stadler, 2011;Helay et al, 2018). The anamorphic structures are most often referred to as the genus Nodulisporium Preuss that produces conidia from percurrent proliferating conidiogenous cells (Petrini, Müller, 1986;You et al, 1997).…”