Sporormiella

Sporormiella
Sporormiella vexans asci exiting fungi
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Fungi
Division:
Ascomycota
Class:
Dothideomycetes
Subclass:
Pleosporomycetidae
Order:
Pleosporales
Family:
Sporormiaceae
Genus:
Sporormiella

Ellis & Everh.
Type species
Sporormiella nigropurpurea
Ellis & Everh.

Sporormiella is a genus of fungi in the phylum Ascomycota whose species can be found worldwide, including the Arctic.[1] It grows primarily on dung but also can be found in soil and plant debris.[2] The exact number of species is debated and can range from 60[3] to 80[4] in total depending on the source. A majority of these species are coprophilous,[5] however, there are a few that are endophytes (S. minimoides)[6] and saprobic.[7]

Their lifecycle is thought to require herbivorous digestion, via wild or domestic herbivores, in order for spores to properly germinate although this is still under review.[8] After being consumed and passed through the digestive tract, their fruitbodies utilize herbivorous dung as a substrate to reproduce via asci.[5] This genus is characterized by their dark, olive-brown, 4-celled spores with a defined germ slit that are contained within a gelatinous sheath that they are forcibly ejected from and stick to nearby vegetation where they will hopefully be eaten and repeat their lifecycle.[9]

This association with herbivorous animals has allowed this fungus to be utilized in a paleontological context as a proxy for megafauna presence and abundance in the late Quaternary period.[5] Research has primarily focused on the use of this proxy to track the decline of megafauna in North America in the Late Pleistocene as spores can be present in high abundances within areas with large assemblages of large grazing animals are present.[10] It is hypothesized that these groups of large animals will produce more dung and thus, more Sporormiella will be present and wash into water basins where they can be later detected in lake sediment cores; although the potential biases of using this proxy, such as spore abundances being higher at shorelines closer to grazing activity, are being discovered and discussed the more this proxy is used.[11]

  1. ^ Booth, Tom (1982-07-01). "Taxonomic notes on coprophilous fungi of the Arctic: Churchill, Resolute Bay, and Devon Island". Canadian Journal of Botany. 60 (7): 1115–1125. doi:10.1139/b82-141. ISSN 0008-4026.
  2. ^ "Sporormiella Ellis & Everh., 1892". www.gbif.org. Retrieved 2024-04-22.
  3. ^ Kоrolyova, O. (2015). "Coprophilous microfungi of the genus Sporormiella Ellis & Everh. from Ukraine". Science and Education a New Dimension. III(8) (73).
  4. ^ Kirk, P. M.; Cannon, P. F.; Minter, D. W.; Stalpers, J. A. (2008). Ainsworth, Geoffrey C. (ed.). Ainsworth & Bisby's dictionary of the fungi (10 ed.). CABI. p. 658. ISBN 978-0-85199-826-8.
  5. ^ a b c Ahmed, S. Iftikhar; Cain, R. F. (1972-03-01). "Revision of the genera Sporormia and Sporormiella". Canadian Journal of Botany. 50 (3): 419–477. doi:10.1139/b72-061. ISSN 0008-4026.
  6. ^ Leyte-Lugo, Martha; Figueroa, Mario; González, María del Carmen; Glenn, Anthony E.; González-Andrade, Martín; Mata, Rachel (2013). "Metabolites from the entophytic fungus Sporormiella minimoides isolated from Hintonia latiflora". Phytochemistry. 96: 273–278. Bibcode:2013PChem..96..273L. doi:10.1016/j.phytochem.2013.09.006. PMID 24084473.
  7. ^ Melo, Roger Fagner Ribeiro; Miller, Andrew N.; Maia, Leonor Costa (2017-07-12). "Sporormiella longicolla sp. nov. and new Sporormiella records on herbivore dung from Brazil". Mycotaxon. 132 (2): 459–470. doi:10.5248/132.459. ISSN 0093-4666.
  8. ^ Perrotti, Angelina G.; van Asperen, Eline (2019). "Dung fungi as a proxy for megaherbivores: opportunities and limitations for archaeological applications". Vegetation History and Archaeobotany. 28 (1): 93–104. Bibcode:2019VegHA..28...93P. doi:10.1007/s00334-018-0686-7. ISSN 0939-6314.
  9. ^ Feranec, Robert S.; Miller, Norton G.; Lothrop, Jonathan C.; Graham, Russell W. (2011). "The Sporormiella proxy and end-Pleistocene megafaunal extinction: A perspective". Quaternary International. 245 (2): 333–338. Bibcode:2011QuInt.245..333F. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2011.06.004.
  10. ^ Gill, Jacquelyn L.; Williams, John W.; Jackson, Stephen T.; Lininger, Katherine B.; Robinson, Guy S. (2009-11-20). "Pleistocene Megafaunal Collapse, Novel Plant Communities, and Enhanced Fire Regimes in North America". Science. 326 (5956): 1100–1103. Bibcode:2009Sci...326.1100G. doi:10.1126/science.1179504. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 19965426.
  11. ^ Raper, Diana; Bush, Mark (2009). "A test of Sporormiella representation as a predictor of megaherbivore presence and abundance". Quaternary Research. 71 (3): 490–496. Bibcode:2009QuRes..71..490R. doi:10.1016/j.yqres.2009.01.010. ISSN 0033-5894.