Meike Piepenbring

Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main · Institute of Ecology, Evolution and Diversity

In 2015, 2016, and 2017, three international field schools on tropical mycology were realized in Benin by the University of Parakou, Benin, in collaboration with the University of Frankfurt, Germany. A total of 69 participants from 14 countries of tropical Africa and three different countries of Europe included 61 student participants from Africa a...

The order Phyllachorales (Pezizomycotina, Ascomycota) is a group of biotrophic, obligate plant parasitic fungi with a tropical distribution and high host specificity. Traditionally two families are recognised within this order: Phyllachoraceae and Phaeochoraceae, based mostly on morphological and host characteristics. Currently, the position of the...

Fruiting bodies of the corticoid fungus Scytinostroma portentosum, known as mothball crust, have been sampled from a dead branch of sallow. Volatile organic compounds of the samples were extracted by means of liquid/liquid extraction and purified by solvent assisted flavour evaporation. In addition, solid-phase microextraction was applied on one fr...

The phylogenetic affinities of the anamorphic fungus Ernakulamia cochinensis are investigated based on a representative specimen recently collected on Astrocaryum standleyanum (Arecaceae) in Panama. Molecular phylogenetic analyses using nuclear ribosomal DNA sequence data of the large subunit and the internal transcribed spacer region together with...

Plant symbioses with fungal root endophytes span a continuum from mutualistic to parasitic outcomes, and are highly variable depending on the genotype of each symbiont. The abiotic context in which interactions occur also seems to influence the outcome of plant-endophyte symbioses, but we lack understanding of its relative importance. We aimed to a...

Coelomycetes with hyaline stauroconidia represent a rare and undersampled group of fungi with often unknown teleomorphs. In the unique savanna-like vegetation at the base of the Barú volcano in Chiriquí Province, Panama, we discovered an anamorphic ascomycete associated with living shoots and leaves of Buddleja nitida (Scrophulariaceae) that produc...

Coccodiella is a genus of plant-parasitic species in the family Phyllachoraceae (Phyllachorales, Ascomycota), i.e., tropical tar spot fungi. Members of the genus Coccodiella are tropical in distribution and are host-specific, growing on plant species belonging to nine host plant families. Most of the known species occur on various genera and specie...

Although Panama is hypothesized to play an important role for the spread of powdery mildews from North to South America, only few species are known from Panama. Two species with hyphae penetrating into the host leaf mesophyll are presented here. Phyllactinia spathodeae from Spathodea campanulata is considered a synonym of Ph. obclavata. Leveillula...

The agent of apple scab disease (Venturia inaequalis) is the most common pathogen in apple cultivation. Its ascospores are released in spring, mainly during daylight hours and triggered by rain events. To investigate the causes of diurnal rhythm of ascospore dissemination of the apple scab fungus ascospore releases were examined continuously with s...

Phytotoxic dioxolanones from Guignardia bidwellii can be described as potential virulence factors which cause the formation of lesions upon an infection by G. bidwellii. The toxin guignardic acid was found in planta of G. bidwellii-infected Vitis vinifera leaves, whereas no phytotoxic dioxolanones were detected in uninfected leaf material. Secondar...

The conveyance of knowledge of the life cycles performed by fungi and plants with spores is a challenge for teaching in university education. The life cycles of fungi, in particular, can be very complex and difficult to understand. This paper presents the development and implementation of a German and English educational software program, including...

Microfungi of degraded soil at the border of a tropical seasonal dry forest in Western Panama were isolated and cultivated. These fungi were identified based on morphological characteristics and molecular sequences of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region. 24 species of soil fungi were identified among which 10 species are new reports for Pa...

Novel species of fungi described in this study include those from various countries as follows: Australia: Apiognomonia lasiopetali on Lasiopetalum sp., Blastacervulus eucalyptorum on Eucalyptus adesmophloia, Bullanockia australis (incl. Bullanockia gen. nov.) on Kingia australis, Caliciopsis eucalypti on Eucalyptus marginata, Celerioriella petroph...

Plants growing in highly saline soils harbor unique communities of fungal root endophytes. We aimed to gain insight into how these communities are established in natural plant populations. We used cultivation-based and molecular approaches to examine root-endophytic colonization in the annual halophyte Salicornia patula at three time points over a...

Plants associate through their roots with fungal assemblages that impact their abundance and productivity. Non-mycorrhizal endophytes constitute an important component of such fungal diversity, but their implication in ecosystem processes is little known. Using a selection of 128 root-endophytic strains, we defined functional groups based on their...

Janthinobacterium and Duganella are well-known for their antifungal effects. Surprisingly, almost nothing is known on molecular aspects involved in the close bacterium-fungus interaction. To better understand this interaction, we established the genomes of 11 Janthinobacterium and Duganella isolates in combination with phylogenetic and functional a...

Background and Aims Sugarcane smut is caused by the fungus Sporisorium scitamineum (Ustilaginales/Ustilaginomycotina/Basidiomycota), which is responsible for losses in sugarcane production worldwide. Infected plants show a profound metabolic modification resulting in the development of a whip-shaped structure (sorus) composed of a mixture of plant...

Due to ambiguous morphological and molecular characteristics, species of Tulasnellaceae are difficult to organize taxonomically. In this study a morphological revision of the family and 30 reinvestigated morphospecies of Tulasnella are presented. Illustrations, descriptions, statistical analysis, and discussions of the species are based on exsiccat...

In China and other countries of East Asia, so-called Ling-zhi or Reishi mushrooms are used in traditional medicine since several centuries. Although the common practice to apply the originally European name ‘Ganoderma lucidum’ to these fungi has been questioned by several taxonomists, this is still generally done in recent publications and with com...

A new species of the genus Exophiala (Herpotrichiellaceae, Ascomycota), Exophiala radicis, is described. The description is based on five strains isolated as endophytes from roots of the brassicaceous plant Microthlaspi perfoliatum s.l., collected at different localities in Europe. As evidenced by phylogenetic analyses of regions of the ribosomal D...

A new species of Agaricales, called Laccaria stellata, was collected in a premontane cloud forest in the Fortuna Forest Reserve, Panama, and it is described based on morphological and molecular characteristics. It differs morphologically from all known species of Laccaria by minute, pinkish-orange colored basidiomata, a very thin and translucent pi...

In the present study, conducted in a secondary dry-seasonal forest in the pacific lowlands of southwestern Panama over 2 years, fungal diversity is linked to plant phenology, litter, and climatic data. Agaricales fungi showed maximum species richness at the beginning of rainy seasons, probably due to the important litter accumulation during the dry...

New species of Tulasnella and new records for Ecuador. https://www.schweizerbart.de/papers/nova_hedwigia/detail/102/85679/Morphological_revision_of_Tulasnellaceae_with_two_new_species_of_Tulasnella_and_new_records_of_Tulasnella_spp_for_Ecuador

An unusual fungus with a novel set of morphological, ecological, and DNA sequence characteristics was found to be causing necrosis of distal portions of living leaves and sterility of Parodiophyllochloa cordovensis (Poaceae) in Panama. The small, superficial, soft-textured yellow perithecia develop directly on the surface of the necrotic plant tiss...

Three new species of Meliolaceae, Appendiculella monsterae on Monstera deliciosa (Araceae), Asteridiella nitidae on Buddleja nitida (Scrophulariaceae), and Irenopsis chrysophylli on Chrysophyllum sp. (Sapotaceae), are described based on material collected in Panama. Eighteen species of Meliolaceae are reported for the first time for Panama, which i...

Foliicolous hyphomycetes recorded from Panama for the first time are Gonatophragmium mori from zonate leaf spots of Calathea lutea and Goeppertia panamensis (Marantaceae) and Chromolaena odorata (Asteraceae), Periconiella geonomae growing superficially on Hymenaea courbaril (Fabaceae) and Tabebuia cf. rosea (Bignoniaceae), Pseudocercospora melochia...

Fungi play major roles in ecosystem processes, but the determinants of fungal diversity and biogeographic patterns remain poorly understood. Using DNA metabarcoding data from hundreds of globally distributed soil samples, we demonstrate that fungal richness is decoupled from plant diversity. The plant-to-fungus richness ratio declines exponentially...

New records of species of Asterinaceae with intercalary appressoria infecting plants in Central America and Panama are described and illustrated in detail. New records are Asterolibertia licaniicola on the new host Licania arborea (Chrysobalanaceae), Asterolibertia nodulosa on the new hosts Oxandra venezuelana and Xylopia sp. (Annonaceae), and Cirs...

The order Asterinales comprises a single family, Asterinaceae. In this study, types or specimens of 41 genera of Asterinaceae are re-examined and re-described and illustrated by micrographs. Seventeen genera, namely Asterina (type genus), Asterinella, Asterotexis, Batistinula, Cirsosia, Echidnodella, Halbania, Lembosia, Meliolaster, Parasterinopsis...

A new species of rust fungi, Nyssopsora panamensis (Raveneliaceae, Pucciniales) on Astronium graveolens (Anacardiaceae) is proposed. It differs from known species of Nyssopsora by rhomboid urediniospores that are echinulate with smooth areas and relatively small teliospores with long, nonfurcated to tetrafurcated projections. However, several speci...

New species of Passalora on Aphelandra scabra (Acanthaceae) and of Periconiella on Persea americana (Lauraceae) are described from tropical lowland vegetation in Panama. The new Passalora species differs from congeneric species on members of Acanthaceae by its external hyphae giving rise to conidiophores. The new Periconiella species can be disting...

Delimitation of species and the search for a proper threshold for defining phylogenetic species in fungi are under discussion. In this study, morphological and molecular data are correlated to delimit species of Tulasnella, the most important mycobionts of Orchidaceae, which suffer from poor taxonomy. Resupinate basidiomata of Tulasnella species we...

Two new species of Uromyces with reticulated teliospores are compared with nine species of this genus known from Loranthaceae. The new species Uromyces bahiensis from Brazil has smaller spores than all known species of Uromyces with reticulate teliospores on Loranthaceae. Uromyces struthanthi from Panama is characterized by long teliospore pedicels...

Nematococcomyces oberwinkleri sp. nov. is described and illustrated on living twigs of Rhododendron sp. from Yunnan Province, China. It has ascospore appendages similar to the type species N. rhododendri, but differs in its eight-spored asci, ascospore shape, and the gelatinous sheath around the ascospores. Combined large subunit (LSU) rDNA and mit...

Two species of smut fungi (Basidiomycota) are reported here for the first time for Panama. Narasimhania alismatis (Doassansiales) was found on Sagittaria guayanensis and Tolyposporium kuwanoanum (Ustilaginales) on Cyperus tenuis, a new species of host plant. The name of the latter fungus is a new combination based on the currently accepted name Ust...

Based on recent collections from Ecuador and Panama and on type studies, 16 species of Favolaschia (Mycenaceae, Agaricales), including one new to science, are presented with detailed descriptions and illustrations. Favolaschia macropora is described as new from a bamboo species from Panama. Favolaschia cinnabarina and F. gaillardii probably are syn...

Based on opportunistic collections of fungi in Panama, two species of Diatrypaceae (Xylariales) are described and illustrated. One of them, Eutypella semicircularis, found twice on branches probably belonging to Alnus acuminate, is new to science. It differs from known species of Eutypella and Peroneutypa with strongly allantoid or semicircular asc...

Foliar fungal communities of plants are diverse and ubiquitous. In grasses endophytes may increase host fitness; in trees, their ecological roles are poorly understood. We investigated whether the genotype of the host tree influences community structure of foliar fungi. We sampled leaves from genotyped balsam poplars from across the species' range,...

The number of pruned 454 reads assignable by MEGAN to low-level taxa (125), on the basis of BLAST hits against annotated fungal sequences present in GenBank. (ZIP)

Clusters delimited at sequence-divergence based equivalents of 6 grammar thresholds with GramCluster. (ZIP)

Collection data, 454 MID tags of the samples during sequencing, a priori LDA groups and LDA results of foliar fungal communities from balsam poplar. (XLS)

List and functions of foliar fungal taxa discriminating among host balsam poplar specimens on the basis of genotype group and regional translocation events. (XLS)

Pruned sequences produced by the 454 runs for the foliar fungal communities of each balsam poplar host specimen in FASTA format. (ZIP)

Although bananas are economically important crops and many fungi are recorded from these plants, detailed data about the fungi are scarce, e.g. with respect to their distribution and morphology in the field and in culture. Three hyphomycetes (anamorphic Dothideomycetes) known as potential pathogens on leaves of Musa species were identified based on...

RESUMEN Este estudio se realizó con la finalidad de determinar la diversidad de hongos entomopatógenos nativos asociados a insectos presentes en plantaciones de café en Boquete (sin la presencia de Hypothenemus hampei Ferrari). El trabajo de campo se realizó entre octubre y noviembre de 2005. Se recolectaron insectos con la sintomatología del ataq...

Mykologische Geländearbeit in den Tropen ist faszinierend, weil Pilze als heterotrophe Lebenwesen auf vielfältige Weise ihre Nährstoffe erlangen und dafür häufig mit Algen, Pflanzen und Tieren assoziiert sind. Die meisten Pilze leben in Symbiose mit Pflanzen oder Algen (Flechten), parasitieren sie oder leben von pflanzlichem, totem Material. Andere...

One hundred and thirty two samples of macro and micro fungal strains have been collected as part of an inventory and to investigate their capability to produced active substances against tropical diseases, bacteria and plant pathogenic fungi. After their identification and literature analysis only 13 fungi were selected for further work; the fungal...

A fungus forming white gelatinous pycnidia on rotting wood was collected in Panama. The presence of hyphal clamps and dolipores with continuous parenthesomes indicates that the fungus belongs to the Basidiomycota, Agaricomycotina. In a phylogenetic hypothesis inferred from DNA sequence analysis, the species shows a close relationship with members o...

The genus Graphiola (Exobasidiales, Basidiomycota) includes microfungi parasitic on palms known from tropical and subtropical regions all around the world. It is revised based on recent collections and herbarium specimens of which five specimens correspond to types. Twelve species are recognized including one new species on Geonoma interrupta from...

RESUMEN Durante una investigación de hongos parásitos en plantas en el Oeste de Panamá se encontraron numerosas especies de Meliolales (Ascomycota) o mildius negros. Se reportan 11 especies de Meliolales y una variedad, por primera vez para Panamá, Asteridiella anastomosans var. anastomosans, A. anastomosans var. macilenta, A. ochnacearum, A. cf. p...

ANDRADE J.M., O. MALAGÓN, M. PIEPENBRING & C. ARMIJOS (2012). Ethnomycology and nutritional value of wild mushrooms of the indigenous community Saraguro in Southern Ecuador. Bol. Soc. Micol. Madrid 36: 193-201. Seven species of macrofungi belonging to the Basidiomycota used by Saraguro indigenous people in Southern Ecuador are presented. Lentinula...

The genus Tulasnella comprises important orchid mycobionts. Molecular phylogenetic studies on nrITS-5.8S sequences of Tulasnella species previously isolated from mycorrhizas of epiphytic orchids from a tropical Andean forest showed genomic variability among clones which was difficult to interpret as intra- or interspecific variations or to correlat...

For the Darién Province, an area larger than Jamaica in Eastern Panama, up to now only 19 species of fungi, mainly lichens and plant parasitic microfungi, have been known. Two general mycological forays including most major groups of fungi were carried out in this area for the first time. During 3days mostly in secondary vegetation and 2days in pri...