2023-12-18 14:51:49
MADRID, 18 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) –
A team of Brazilian researchers has just published in the journal Plos One the description of two new species of fungi of the genus Tulostoma in Brazilin a study that has had the collaboration of the Research Professor of the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) at the Royal Botanical Garden (RJB) María-Paz Martín.
The researchers have also provided annotations on the taxonomic range of the species Tulostoma exasperatum var. ridley, as reported by the Royal Botanic Garden.
Popularly known as ‘balls with foot’ or ‘spitted wolf’s shell’las species of the genus Tulostomadiscovered in 1794 by the South African botanist Christiaan H. Persoon (1761-1836), are easily recognizable by their fruiting body, formed by a stem (stipe) and a globose upper part inside which the spores are found.
The spores are released through an ostiole in its apical part. Sometimes the stipe can remain buried in the ground. Tulostoma is a species-diverse genus with a global distribution that includes 276 described species, as listed in the MycoBank mycological database, but “for which there is a notable information gap on Neotropical species, especially regarding refers to its geographical distribution and the information in its DNA, which makes it difficult to better understand its diversity, evolution and ecology,” according to RJB-CSIC Research Professor, María-Paz Martín.
Only 20 species of the genus in Brazil Although Brazil is the country with the greatest global biodiversity, with a wide range of species of animals, plants and fungi that are not found anywhere else on the planet, currently only 20 species of the 276 in the world are recorded. genus in five of its six biomes: the Amazon rainforest, the Atlantic forest, the Caatinga, the Cerrado and the Pampa.
“Hence the importance of the description of these two new species with reticulated spores, Tulostoma mucugeense and T. paratyense, coming from two threatened Brazilian areas, the Atlantic Forest and the rock fields, in addition to updating annotations on the taxonomic range of Tulostoma exasperatum var. ridley,” adds María Paz-Martín.
The two new species of Tulostoma found in Brazil are closely related to T.exasperatum, but with different phytophysiognomy and different substrates (wood and soil), based on morphological and phylogenetic DNA data.
As this study on the genus concludes, it is now known that T.exasperatum is widely distributed in the African, Asian and American tropics. The few records of T. exasperatum var. ridley from Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand suggest that this taxon is endemic to Southeast Asia, but the researchers believe further analysis is still needed to elucidate the taxonomic range.
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