Spongiforma

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Spongiforma
Two halves of an orangish sponge-like fungus, with a ruler shown at the bottom for scale.
S. squarepantsii
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Fungi
Division: Basidiomycota
Class: Agaricomycetes
Order: Boletales
Family: Boletaceae
Subfamily: Leccinoideae
Genus: Spongiforma
Desjardin, Manf. Binder, Roekring & Flegel (2009)
Type species
Spongiforma thailandica
Desjardin, Manf. Binder, Roekring & Flegel (2009)
Species

S. squarepantsii
S. thailandica

Spongiforma is a

specific name derives from its perceived resemblance to the cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants. Apart from differences in distribution, S. squarepantsii differs from S. thailandica in its colour, odour, and spore
structure.

Description

The fruit bodies of Spongiforma species have a brain-like to sponge-like form, and grow on the surface of the ground. They do not have a

Cystidia are common on the sterile locule edges; they are hyaline (translucent) and range in shape from cylindrical to ventricose (swollen in the middle) or rostrate (with a beaklike proboscis). The hyphae of the flesh are gelatinous and inamyloid. Clamp connections are absent from the hyphae.[1]

Taxonomy and naming

The type species S. thailandica was first described scientifically in 2009 by Egon Horak, Timothy Flegel and Dennis E. Desjardin, based on specimens collected in July 2002 in Khao Yai National Park, central Thailand, and roughly three years later in the same location. Before this, S. thailandica had been reported and illustrated in a 2001 Thai publication as an unidentified species of Hymenogaster.[1][2]

S. squarepantsii was first described scientifically in 2011 in the journal

dipterocarp rainforest in Lambir Hills, although it was not formally described in this publication.[3]

The genus name Spongiforma refers to the sponge-like nature of the fruit body. The

specific epithet thailandica denotes the country in which the type species is found;[1] the epithet squarepantsii honors the well-known cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants.[4] The unusual epithet garnered the species attention in the popular press.[5][6][7]

Phylogeny and classification

Tylopilus tabacinus

Strobilomyces sp.

Strobilomyces floccopus

Strobilomyces sp.

Spongiforma thailandica

Spongiforma squarepantsii

Phylogeny and relationships of Spongiforma and other Boletaceae species based on ribosomal DNA sequences.[4]

common ancestor) to the genus Porphyrellus; Spongiforma and Porphyrellus form a clade that is sister to Strobilomyces.[1] All three genera are members of the family Boletaceae
.

The phylogenetic relationships determined by molecular techniques are not consistent with a classification scheme based on similarities in spore

scanning electron microscopy. In contrast to Spongiforma, however, Austroboletus spores do not have an apical pore. Genetic analysis shows that Spongiforma is more closely allied with the smooth-spored Porphyrellus than with the rugulose-punctate-spored Austroboletus.[1]

Electron micrograph showing several dozen ellipsoid spores with rough surfaces and a distinct pore in each.
Spores of S. squarepantsii; scale bar = 10 μm

Relatively few boletes have an apical pore at the distal end of their basidiospores. The dark reddish-brown, smooth spores of Porphyrellus amylosporus are truncate with a thin-walled depression. Some species of Heimioporus have spores with apical pores, but molecular analyses demonstrate that Heimioporus is only distantly related to Spongiforma.[1]

Spongiforma further resembles Austroboletus and Porphyrellus species in the cellular structure of the cap cuticle (pileipellis). The arrangement, known as a trichodermium, features the outermost hyphae emerging roughly parallel, like hairs, perpendicular to the surface of the fruit body. The trichodermium comprises chains of short, cylindrical to somewhat moniliform cells (resembling a string of beads) with terminal (end) cells that are cylindrical to club-shaped. This cellular arrangement is similar to that present in the sterile edges of the tissues that demarcate the locules in Spongiforma. According to Desjardins and colleagues, this may represent vestiges of what was once cap cuticle or peridial tissue in an ancestor.[1] Spongiforma is the only genus of the Boletales that forms above-ground fruit bodies that lack a peridium and have many exposed locules lined with basidia that do not forcibly discharge spores.[4]

Ecology, habitat and distribution

Both species of Spongiforma are known only from their

critically endangered, respectively, by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.[9][10] Spongiforma squarepantsii was collected from the ground where it was growing solitarily under undetermined dipterocarp trees in Lambir Hills National Park (Sarawak State, Malaysia), northern Borneo. This tropical rainforest receives about 3,000 mm (120 in) of rain yearly, with average temperatures ranging from 24 to 32 °C (75 to 90 °F).[4] Spongiforma species have lost the ability to eject their spores forcefully, and have distinctive odours, suggesting that the fungus relies on the activity of animals to help disperse spores. Because the island habitat of the genus restricts gene flow and because the two known species are separated by considerable distance geographically, the authors suggest that other unexplored, isolated tracts of dipterocarp forests between Thailand and Malaysia may contain additional species.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Desjardin DE, Binder M, Roekring S, Flegel T (2009). "Spongiforma, a new genus of gasteroid boletes from Thailand" (PDF). Fungal Diversity. 37: 1–8.
  2. ^ Ruksawong P, Flegel TW (2001). Thai Mushrooms and Other Fungi. Bangkok, Thailand: National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (BIOTEC), National Science and Technology Development Agency. p. 248.
  3. PMID 19878464
    .
  4. ^
    S2CID 15849227
    .
  5. ^ Staff writer (22 June 2011). "SpongeBob lends name to new mushroom species". BBC. Retrieved 5 October 2011.
  6. ^ Willingham E. (22 June 2011). "Dennis Desjardin: A fungus named after SpongeBob". Earthsky.org. Retrieved 5 October 2011.
  7. ^ GrrlScientist (22 June 2011). "The new fungus from Bikini Bottom". Punctuated Equilibrium, The Guardian. Retrieved 2011-10-05.
  8. PMID 17486973
    .
  9. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2017-3.RLTS.T31315A2804348.en
    . Retrieved 13 November 2021.
  10. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2017-3.RLTS.T33276A2835934.en
    . Retrieved 13 November 2021.

External links
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