Albatrellus

Fungalpedia – Note 143 Albatrellus

Citation if using this entry: Bera et al. (in prep) – Fungalpedia, Basidiomycota 1. Mycosphere.

Index Fungorum, MycoBank, Facesoffungi, GenBank, Fig. 1

Albatrellaceae, Russulales, Agaricomycetes, Basidiomycota, Fungi

Albatrellus was described by S.F. Gray (1821) based on Albatrellus albidus Gray in his work “A Natural Arrangement of British Plants”. The poroid hymenophore of Albatrellus initially placed the genus under the order Polyporales (Kirk et al. 2001). However, as the study progressed combining the morphology and the molecular data, Albatrellus was revealed to be polyphyletic (Bruns et al. 1998, Zheng & Liu 2008). The primary phylogenetic analyses based on the mitochondrial large subunit rRNA gene placed some species of Albatrellus closely related to the members of the family Russulaceae (Bruns et al. 1998). Based on further studies dealing with other regions of rDNA sequence data, the ectomycorrhizal species of Albatrellus clustered within the russuloid clade while the ones having a saprotrophic habit were placed in the polyporoid clade (Pouzar 1972, Canfield 1981, Ryvarden & Gilbertson 1993, Hibbett & Binder 2002, Hibbett et al. 2005, Miller et al. 2006, Zmitrovich et al. 2006, Zheng & Liu 2008). However, the placement of some of the saprotrophic Albatrellus species is still unsettled pending further study (Zheng & Liu 2008). Albatrellus is one of the commonly encountered terrestrial mushrooms in the north temperate forests producing annual, medium to large-sized, colourful basidiomata (Cui et al. 2008). The basidiomata is usually centrally or laterally stipitate with pileus ranging from being circular to nephroid or flabellate or sometimes without any distinctive shape (Zhou et al. 2021). The pores on the hymenophore can be circular or angular (Zhou et al. 2021). The members of this genus have monomitic hyphal system (Zhou et al. 2021). The basidiospores are smooth-surfaced, ellipsoid to subglobose, and either amyloid or inamyloid with Melzer’s reagent (Pouzar 1966, 1975, Cui et al. 2008). The medicinal properties of Albatrellus, particularly the anti-cancer potential of A. confluens (Alb. & Schwein.) Kotl. & Pouzar, are unparalleled. (Ye et al. 2005, Dube et al. 2022). The revisionary study of the albatrelloid group [Albatrellus sensu lato or Scutiger Paulet sensu lato as per Audet (2010)] erected eight new genera delimiting the members belonging to Albatrellus sensu stricto (Audet 2010). To date, there are eleven species included in Albatrellus sensu stricto (Li et al. 2008, Audet 2010, Khan et al. 2018, Zhou et al. 2021 ). Most of the species have been reported from the temperate forest regions of the countries of North America, Europe, and Asia (Audet 2010, Vadthanarat et al. 2017).

Type species: Albatrellus ovinus (Schaeff.) Kotl. & Pouzar

Other accepted species: A. alpinus H.M. Zhou & Y.C. Dai,

A. arizonicus Gilb.,

A. avellaneus Pouzar,

A. cantharellus (Lloyd) Pouzar,

A. citrinus Ryman, A. ovinus (Schaeff.) Kotl. & Pouzar,

A. piceiphilus B.K. Cui & Y.C. Dai,

A. roseus J. Khan, Sher & Khalid,

A. subrubescens (Murrill) Pouzar,

A. tianschanicus (Bondartsev) Pouzar, and

A. zhuangii Y.C. Dai & Juan

Figure 1. Albatrellus roseus (holotype SWAT000135). a. Basidiomata. b. Basidia. c. Basidiospores. d. Tramal hyphae. e. Pileipellis hyphae. Scale bars: a = 10 mm, b, c = 6 μm, d = 4 μm, e = 8 μm. Redrawn from Khan et al. 2017.

References

Audet S 2010 – Essai de découpage systématique du genre Scutiger (Basidiomycota): Albatrellopsis, Albatrellus, Polyporoletus, Scutiger et description de six nouveaux genres. Mycotaxon, 111(1), 431–464.

Bruns TD, Szaro TM, Gardes M, Cullings KW, Pan JJ, Taylor DL, … Li Y 1998 – A sequence database for the identification of ectomycorrhizal basidiomycetes by phylogenetic analysis. Molecular Ecology, 7(3), 257–272.

Canfield ER 1981 – The wood-decay capability of Albatrellus dispansus. Mycologia, 73(3), 399–406.

Cui BK, Wang Z, Dai YC 2008 – Albatrellus piceiphilus sp. nov. on the basis of morphological and molecular characters. Fungal Diversity, 28, 41–48.

Dube M, Llanes D, Saoud,M, Rennert R, Imming P, Häberli C, …Arnold N 2022 – Albatrellus confluens (Alb. & Schwein.) Kotl. & Pouz.: Natural Fungal Compounds and Synthetic Derivatives with In Vitro Anthelmintic Activities and Antiproliferative Effects against Two Human Cancer Cell Lines. Molecules, 27(9), 2950.

Gray SF 1821 – Natural Arrangement of British Plants: According to Their Relations to Each Other, as Pointed Out by Jussieu, De Candolle, Brown &c.: Including Those Cultivated for Use with an Introduction to Botany, in which the Terms Newly Introduced are Explained Vol. 1. London, UK: Cradock, and Joy. p. 645.

Hibbett DS, Binder M 2002 – Evolution of complex fruiting–body morphologies in homobasidiomycetes. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences, 269(1504), 1963–1969.

Hibbett DS, Nilsson RH, Snyder M, Fonseca M, Costanzo J, Shonfeld M 2005 – Automated phylogenetic taxonomy: an example in the homobasidiomycetes (mushroom-forming fungi). Systematic Biology, 54(4), 660–668.

Khan J, Sher H, Bussmann RW, Hart R, Khalid AN 2017 – Albatrellus roseus sp. nov. (Albatrellaceae; Basidiomycota), the first representative of the genus from Pakistan. Mycoscience, 59(1), 12–17.

Kirk PM, Cannon PF, David JC, Stalpers JA (eds) 2001 – Ainsworth & Bisby’s dictionary of the fungi. 9^th edn. Oxon: CAB International.

Li J, Xiong HX, Dai YC 2008 – Polypores from Shennongjia Nature Reserve in Hubei Province, Central China. Cryptogamie, Mycologie, 29(3), 267–277.