Entrophospora R.N. Ames & R.W. Schneid.
| Term | Description |
|---|---|
| Etymology: | Greek: “spore nourished from within” |
| Description: | In this genus, spores are borne from within the neck of a pre-differentiated “sporiferous saccule”. Ontogenesis of spore and inner walls mirrors that found in spores of Acaulospora. |
| Type species: | E. infrequens (Hall) Ames & Schneider [basionym= Glomus infrequens Hall] |
Spore Ontogeny
With most species in this genus now transferred to Acaulospora, given that the position of spore formation relative to the neck of the sporiferous saccule is a convergent trait, only one species remains, Entrophospora infrequens. Even that species likely doesn’t belong here because rDNA sequence data clearly places it in the Claroideoglomus clade.
E. infrequens is notoriously difficult to propagate in pot culture (although we now have single spore isolates). rDNA sequence data and a bucketload of LSU D2 454 sequences (unpubl. for now) place this species definitively in the glomoid genus, Claroideoglomus. The complete disconnect between genetic and morphological markers cannot be explained with available data, but we must remember that our classification is based on evolution of only one interconnected set of rRNA genes. It is highly likely that rRNA gene evolution marks a unique evolutionary event at the molecular level pointing to a shared background with Claroideoglomus, but genes expressing acaulosporoid characters have been retained elsewhere in the fungal genome.
Literature Cited
- Ames, R.N. and Schneider, R.W. 1979. Entrophospora, a new genus in the Endogonaceae. Mycotaxon 8: 347-352.