Reinhold Pöder

Biodiversity and concentration of airborne fungi in a hospital environment

The biodiversity and concentration of airborne fungi were monitored over a period of 6 months in a special-care unit of a hospital. Air sampling was performed in a corridor that was also accessible to visitors and in an adjacent bone-marrow transplantation (BMT) unit using an air sampler and two isolation media. Altogether, 98 fungal species could be identified, among them Aspergillus fumigatus and A. terreus as well as 48 other species reported as potential pathogens. The average contamination values of the corridor air ranged from 124 to 485 cfu m−3. Neither the degree of fungal air contamination nor the species composition inside the special care unit differed from those found in the corridor. By means of data obtained with a light-activated sensor, a possible influence of human activities on diurnal changes of fungal propagule concentration was shown.

The iceman's fungi

Among the numerous items of equipment with the ‘Iceman’, who died more than 5000 years ago on an alpine glacier, were three fungal objects: two different shaped fruitbody pieces of the polypore Piptoporus betulinus, each mounted separately on a leather thong, and, found in his girdle bag, a relatively large quantity of tinder material prepared from the ‘true tinder bracket’ Fomes fomentarius. A full description of these items and a chronological report on their identification is given. The question about the possible use of the fungi is discussed on the basis of a comprehensive collection of ethnomycological and pharmacological literature data.

The mycobiota of Speck, a traditional Tyrolean smoked and cured ham.

Speck is a ham specialty product traditionally produced in South Tyrol (Italy) and North Tyrol (Austria) by farmers, butcheries, and meat industries. To date, nothing has been learned about fungi associated with this smoked and cured meat. Therefore, it was the main objective of this study to assess the typical mycobiota of Speck in relation to the different production types and the geographic provenance. A total of 121 Speck samples from North Tyrol and South Tyrol was analyzed. From 63 isolated fungal species, only a few can be regarded as typical colonizers: Eurotium rubrum and Penicillium solitum were the dominating species in all types and parts of Speck (crust, meat, and fat). Eight other Penicillium spp. were relatively frequent. The species diversity increased from industrially produced Speck to products from butcheries and farmers, and it was higher in all types of South Tyrolean products. Among the typical mycobiota, Penicillium verrucosum, Penicillium canescens, and Penicillium commune are known as potentially mycotoxigenic.

Identification of illudins in Omphalotus nidiformis and Omphalotus olivascens var. indigo by column liquid chromatography-atmospheric pressure chemical ionization tandem mass spectrometry

Reversed-phase liquid chromatography was used to separate toxins in mushrooms of the genus Omphalotus. Crude ethyl acetate extracts of cultures were injected directly onto a 150 x 2 mm I.D. column packed with 3 microns octadecylsilica and eluted with a gradient of acetonitrile in 0.1% aqueous acetic acid at a flow-rate of 200 microliters/min. Monitoring of the column effluate by atmospheric pressure ionization tandem mass spectrometry allowed the identification of the toxins. The fungal toxins illudin M and illudin S were detected and identified for the first time in cultures of the Australian Omphalotus nidiformis and the North American Omphalotus olivascens var. indigo (Boletales, Basidiomycetes) and confirmed the valuable taxonomic character of illudins for the genus Omphalotus.

Moserella radicicola gen. et sp. nov., a new hypogeous species of Leotiales on ectomycorrhizas of Picea abies

Moserella radicicola is described as a new genus and species of the Leotiales. The fungus is distinctive because of its unique subterranean habitat, in clumps of irregularly interwoven, damaged mycorrhizal root tips of Picea abies , and especially because of the very reduced morphology of its apothecia and the verrucose ascospore wall ornament. A description of the associated mycorrhiza is given.

Mykologische Untersuchungen an der „Schwarzen Masse“ vom Hauslabjoch

Die „Schwarze Masse aus dem Taschchen“ des Similaun-Mannes wurde zunachst von Lippert und Spindler (1991) fur eine „Kittmasse“ gehalten. Eine 5×5×10 mm grose Probe des insgesamt ca. 4 cm grosen Beifundes Nr. 91/109a wurde uns von Univ.-Prof. Dr. K. Spindler ubergeben. Laut Angabe des Romisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseum in Mainz wurde das Material zur Konservierung mit Borsaure versetzt. Bereits in den Untersuchungen von Sauter und Stachelberger (1992) stellte sich heraus, das die Probe aus Haaren menschlicher und tierischer Herkunft, aus Pilzhyphen und feinkornigen, anorganischen Bestandteilen besteht, wobei die Hyphen den Hauptteil der Masse bilden. Sie identifizierten die Pilzhyphen „mit einiger Wahrscheinlichkeit“ als Tramaelemente von Fruchtkorpern des „Echten Zunderschwammes“ (Fomes fomentarius).

Fatal renal failure caused by Cortinarius mushrooms

Sirs, With interest we read the “Clinical Quiz” recently published in Pediatric Nephrology in which Talmud et al. [1] reported on severe mushroom poisoning caused by Cortinarius orellanoides. They confirmed their clinical findings by observations of basidiospores in the leftovers of the contaminated meals. Unfortunately, the report contains a number of inconsistencies, the most important of which is that although all clinical aspects described by these authors fit well with the Orellanus syndrome, the basidiospores pictured do not represent C. orellanoides spores. The spores illustrated in their figure are almondto lemon-shaped, a spore shape typical of many Cortinarius species, but certainly not for members of the Orellanus group: Cortinarius orellanoides spores are ovoid to subglobose (see Fig. 1), which is an important character for its identification. If leftovers from the toxic meal or remains from cleaning the mushrooms are available, more reliable results are obtained with the simple, highly sensitive, and specific orellanine assay according to Pöder and Moser [2] (Fig. 1c): add a drop of 2% iron(III) chloride in 0.5 N HCl to the liquid pressed from fresh or re-hydrated mushroom fragments. In the presence of orellanine, the yellowish liquid immediately stains purple-red to violet [2]. For the detection of orellanine in renal biopsy material, the authors cite, among others, the work of Rohrmoser et al. [3]. However, Rohrmoser et al. did not detect orellanine by high-performance liquid chromatography as stated by Talmud et al. [1], but by thin-layer chromatography

Phylogeny of the genus Omphalotus based on nuclear ribosomal DNA-sequences

The evolutionary history of the genus Omphalotus was inferred from DNA sequences of the ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 rDNA region. We analyzed 32 collections from different geographical areas: O. olearius (Europe), O. illudens (Europe, North America), O. subilludens (North America), O. olivascens var. olivascens (North America) and var. indigo (Mexico), O. mexicanus (Middle America), O. nidiformis (Australia), and O. japonicus (Japan). Phylogenetic analysis was performed declaring Nothopanus eugrammus as outgroup. Our analyses show that the genus Omphalotus is split into two major clades, the first consisting of O. illudens and O. mexicanus and the second comprising O. olearius, O. olivascens, O. japonicus, O. nidiformis and O. subilludens. Moreover, the often discussed synonymy of O. illudens and O. olearius is rejected. Omphalotus japonicus, a species formerly placed in the genus Lampteromyces Sing. for morphological reasons, clustered as the sister group of O. olearius.

Application of micro-computed tomography to microstructure studies of the medicinal fungus Hericium coralloides

The potential of 3-D nondestructive imaging techniques such as micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) was evaluated to study morphological patterns of the potential medicinal fungus Hericium coralloides (Basidiomycota). Micro-CT results were correlated with histological information gained from scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and light microscopy (LM). It is demonstrated that the combination of these imaging methods results in a more distinct picture of the morphology of the edible and potentially medicinal Hericium coralloides basidiomata. In addition we have created 3-D reconstructions and visualizations based on micro-CT imagery from a randomly selected part of the upper region of a fresh H. coralloides basidioma: Analyses for the first time allowed an approximation of the evolutionary effectiveness of this bizarrely formed basidioma type in terms of the investment of tissue biomass and its reproductive output (production of basidiospores).

Meinhard Michael Moser (1924–2002): doyen of European agaricologists

The leading agaricologist Meinhard M. Moser died on 30 September 2002. He was a Centenary Fellow of the British Mycological Society, and the mentor of numerous students and colleagues throughout the world.