Phellinus ellipsoideus

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Phellinus ellipsoideus
The large fruit body discovered in 2008
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Fungi
Division: Basidiomycota
Class: Agaricomycetes
Order: Hymenochaetales
Family: Hymenochaetaceae
Genus: Phellinus
Species:
P. ellipsoideus
Binomial name
Phellinus ellipsoideus
(B.K.Cui & Y.C.Dai) B.K.Cui, Y.C.Dai & Decock (2013)
Synonyms
  • Fomitiporia ellipsoidea B.K.Cui & Y.C.Dai (2008)

Phellinus ellipsoideus (formerly Fomitiporia ellipsoidea) is a species of

pharmacological
applications, but further research is needed.

The species was named in 2008 by Bao-Kai Cui and Yu-Cheng Dai based on collections made in

Hainan Island. The specimen, which was 20 years old, was estimated to weigh between 400 and 500 kilograms (880 and 1,100 lb). This was markedly larger than the previously largest recorded fungal fruit body, a specimen of Rigidoporus ulmarius
found in the United Kingdom that had a circumference of 425 cm (167 in). The findings were formally published in September 2011, but attracted international attention from the mainstream press prior to this.

Taxonomy and phylogenetics

The species was first described in 2008 by Bao-Kai Cui and Yu-Cheng Dai, both of the

specific name ellipsoidea is from the Latin meaning "ellipsoid", and refers to the shape of the spores.[2] Species of the order Hymenochaetales, to which this taxon belongs, make up 25% of the over 700 species of polypore found in China.[3]

synonym of Phellinus anyway.[6]

Description

Phellinus ellipsoideus
saprotrophic

Phellinus ellipsoideus produces

resupinate fruit bodies that are hard and woody, whether fresh or dry.[2] The original description characterized them as measuring up to 30 centimetres (12 in) "or more" in length,[7] 20 cm (7.9 in) in width, and extending 8 mm (0.3 in) from the wood on which they grow at their thickest point.[note 1] The outermost layer is typically yellow to yellowish-brown, measuring 2 mm (0.08 in) in thickness. The shiny surface of the hymenium, the spore-producing section of the fruit body, is covered in pores and ranges in colour from yellow-brown to rust-brown. There are between 5 and 8 pores per millimetre. The tubes are up to 8 mm (0.3 in) in depth, have the same colouration as the surface of the hymenium, and are distinctively layered. They are also hard and woody. The very thin yellow-brown layer of flesh measures less than 0.5 mm (0.02 in) in width. As with much of the rest of the fruit body, it is firm, solid, and reminiscent of wood.[10] The fruit bodies lack any odour or taste.[2]

Microscopic features

Phellinus ellipsoideus produces

basidioles, which are similar in shape to the basidia, but slightly smaller.[10]

In addition to the spore shape, the species is readily identified with the use of a microscope because of its

cystidia unique to the family Hymenochaetaceae, and, in P. ellipsoideus, are found in the hymenium. In shape, the setae are ventricose, with distinctive hooks on their tips. In colour, they are yellow-brown, and they have thick cell walls. They measure 20 to 30 by 10 to 14 μm. Neither more standard cystidia nor cystidioles (underdeveloped cystidia) can be found in the species, but there are a number of rhomboid crystals throughout the hymenium and the flesh.[10]

Most of the tissue of a fungal fruit body is made up of

clamp connections. The skeletal hyphae do not react with Melzer's reagent or Lugol's solution, and are not cyanophilous. While the hyphae will darken when a solution of potassium hydroxide is applied (the KOH test), they remain otherwise unchanged.[10]

The main structure of the fruit body consists primarily of an

lumen of variable thickness. There are also hyaline generative hyphae. These hyphae have thinner walls than the skeletal hyphae, and are also septate (possessing of septa), but are sometimes branched. They measure 2 to 3 μm in diameter.[10] The flesh, again, is primarily made up of skeletal hyphae with some generative hyphae. The thick-walled skeletal hyphae are a yellow-brown to rust brown, and are slightly less agglutinate. The hyphae in the flesh are a little smaller; the skeletal hyphae measure 1.8 to 3.4 μm in diameter, while the generative hyphae measure 1.5 to 2.6 μm in diameter.[10]

Similar species

A cogeneric species potentially similar to Phellinus ellipsoideus is P. caribaeo-quercicola.[11] The latter species shares the hooked hymenial setae and ellipsoidal to broadly ellipsoidal spores. However, details of the fruit body differ, and the spores are hyaline to yellowish, and not dextrinoid.[11] Further, the species is known only from tropical America, where it grows on the Cuban oak.[11] P. castanopsidis, newly described in 2013, is not perennial, and has a pale greyish-brown pore surface. The spores are also slightly larger than those of P. ellipsoideus.[12]

Phellinus ellipsoideus differs from species of Fomitiporia in two key respects. Its spores are less dextrinoid than those of the genus and their shape is atypical. Other than this, it is typical of the genus, according to the original description.[13] Five species of Fomitiporia, F. bannaensis, F. pseudopunctata, F. sonorae, F. sublaevigata and F. tenuis, share with P. ellipsoideus the resupinate fruit bodies and the setae in the hymenium. Despite this, all of them but P. ellipsoideus have straight hymenial setae, and all of them have spores that are spherical or almost spherical, which is much more typical of the genus.[11] F. uncinata (formerly Phellinus uncinatus) has hooked hymenial setae, and the spores are, as with P. ellipsoideus, thick-walled and dextrinoid. The species can be differentiated by the fact the spores are spherical or nearly so, and somewhat larger than those of P. ellipsoideus, measuring 5.5 to 7 by 5 to 6.5 μm. The species is also known only from tropical America, where it grows on bamboo.[11][14]

Distribution and ecology

Hainan Province).[15] P. ellipsoideus is found in "subtropical to tropical" areas of China.[16]

Phellinus ellipsoideus has been recorded growing on the fallen wood of

Hainan Province.[9] It is not a common species, and fruit bodies are only occasionally encountered.[16]

Largest fruit body

In 2010, Cui and Dai were performing field work in tropical woodland on

Hainan Island, China, studying wood-rotting fungi. The pair uncovered a very large P. ellipsoideus fruit body on a fallen Quercus asymmetrica log,[15] which turned out to be the largest fungal fruit body ever documented.[9] The fruit body was found at an altitude of 958 metres (3,143 ft),[15] in old-growth forest.[18] They were initially unable to identify the specimen as P. ellipsoideus, because of its large size, but tests revealed its identity after samples were taken for analysis.[9] After their initial encounter with the large fruit body, Cui and Dai returned to it on two subsequent occasions, so that they could study it further.[9] Nicholas P. Money, executive editor of Fungal Biology, in which the findings were published, praised the pair for not removing the fruit body, thereby allowing it "to continue its business and to marvel visitors to Hainan Island".[18] The discovery was formally published in Fungal Biology in September 2011,[15] but gained attention in the mainstream press worldwide prior to this.[19]

The fruit body was 20 years old, and up to 1,085 cm (35.60 ft) long. It was between 82 and 88 cm (32 and 35 in) wide, and between 4.6 and 5.5 cm (1.8 and 2.2 in) thick. The total volume of the fruit body was somewhere between 409,000 and 525,000 cubic centimetres (25,000 and 32,000 in3). It was estimated to weigh between 400 and 500 kilograms (880 and 1,100 lb), based on three samples from different areas of the fruit body.[15] The specimen had an average of 49 pores per square millimetre, roughly equivalent to 425 million pores.[20] Money estimated that, based on spore output from other polypore species, the fruit body would be able to release a trillion spores a day.[21]

Prior to this discovery, the largest recorded fruit body of any fungus was a specimen of

Blue Mountains, Oregon, covering an area of 965 hectares (2,380 acres). At the time, the organism was estimated to be 8650 years old. Prior to this, an A. gallica (synonymous with A. bulbosa) organism was the largest recorded, covering 15 hectares (37 acres), weighing approximately 9,700 kilograms (21,400 lb). However, whilst these organisms cover a large area, the individual fruit bodies (the mushrooms) are not remarkably large, typically with stems of up to 10 centimetres (3.9 in) in height and caps less than 15 centimetres (5.9 in) in diameter, weighing from 40 to 100 grams (1.4 to 3.5 oz) each.[15]

Medicinal uses and biochemistry

Ergosterol, a chemical isolated from P. ellipsoideus

The fruit bodies of both Phellinus and Fomitiporia species have seen use in

heart disease.[22]

In 2011, research into the chemistry of P. ellipsoideus was published in the journal Mycosystema by Cui, along with Hai-Ying Bao and Bao-Kai Liu of the

steroidal;[24] such compounds play important physiological roles in cell membranes.[25]

Steroidal compounds, like those isolated from P. ellipsoideus, can have

mouse model.[26]

Industrial uses

Phellinus ellipsoideus is used to make MuSkin, or mushroom leather, a

vegan alternative to leather.[27]

See also

Notes

  1. type specimen as "not huge", and a significantly larger specimen has since been found. Dai said that, before the discovery, he and Cui "did not know the fungus [could] grow so huge".[9]

References

  1. ^ a b MycoBank; Cui and Dai 2008, p. 343
  2. ^ a b c d e Cui and Dai 2008, p. 344
  3. ^ Dai 2011, p. 1
  4. ^ Cui and Decock 2013, pp. 341–2, 349
  5. ^ MycoBank; Index Fungorum
  6. ^ Cui and Decock 2013, p. 349
  7. ^ Cui and Dai 2008, pp. 344, 346
  8. ^ Cui and Dai 2008
  9. ^ a b c d e f Walker 2011
  10. ^ a b c d e f g Cui and Dai 2008, p. 346
  11. ^ a b c d e Cui and Dai 2008, p. 347
  12. ^ Cui and Decock 2013, pp. 346, 349
  13. ^ Cui and Dai 2008, pp. 346–7
  14. ^ Dai 2010, p. 173
  15. ^ a b c d e f Cui and Dai 2011, p. 813
  16. ^ a b c d Dai 2011, p. 10
  17. ^ Cui and Dai 2008, p. 343; Dai 2011, p. 10
  18. ^ a b Money 2011
  19. ^ Pulyaevsky 2011; Wahono 2011; Walker 2011
  20. ^ Cui and Dai 2011, pp. 813–4
  21. ^ Money 2011; Money 2015, p. 91
  22. ^ Lifeng, Bao, Bau, Liu and Cui 2012, p. 1482
  23. ^ Bao, Cui and Liu 2011, p. 159
  24. ^ a b Cui and Decock 2013, p. 349; Zhou and Xue 2012, p. 908
  25. ^ a b Bao, Cui and Liu 2011, p. 163
  26. ^ Lifeng, Bao, Bau, Liu and Cui 2012, pp. 1482–5
  27. ^ Mathew 2017; Munyal 2017

Bibliography

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