Posted on April 25, 2019May 2, 2019

Blog post #4

Ecology is the study of organism interaction with their environment. My organism, False turkey tail, is typically found on forest floor, grassy areas with tree, even in our (well my backyard). We know from our fungal week that fungi prefer humid areas. Therefore, we know that my organism would not be found in the desert.

The fruiting body of false turkey tail tends to wing off from dead bark tree. This video pulled from YouTube displays their position.

BTW: Please do not take the person’s advice of how false turkey tail is “medicinal”. Please do your own research.

This video compares/contrasts about medicinal purpose for true turkey tail and false turkey tail. Please still do your own research and if you’re daring like me just take a small bite to see how you react, but not if it is obviously poisonous. LOL

False truly tail can be found with other fungi that resemble its shape. Normally this is Phlebia incarnate, which is a polypore fungus. When my organism was first discovered, it was confused as a polypore fungus. Now my organism is classified as a crust fungus. The difference between a polypore fungus and a crust fungus is the underside of their fruiting body. A polypore fungus such as true turkey tail that was introduced in my blog post 1 has pores that make up the underside of their fruiting body. My organism has a soft underside, or no visible pores.

Photo by MDC Staff, courtesy Missouri Department of Conservation.

This fungus above is a polypore fungus and photo was obtained from this website.

False turkey tail is a plant pathogen. This means that S. ostrea causes infection to a plant. Based off what I have learned this semester I must say that the symbiotic relationship of my organism and the tree is parasitism. First off false turkey tail grows and covers most of a tree bark, thereby blocking sunlight. The false turkey tail also “decompose” the tree. The definition for decompose is basically to break down. So the tree is not coming out alive, as in commensalism or mutualism.

False turkey tail has been found to have a commensal relationship with a type of algae. In my case, I did not see any green discoloration on the flowering body of my organism that I photographed (probably because it was still in the cooler temps). The algae uses the false turkey tail to be in a better “spot” within the same environment (Volk, 2000). The algae does not harm my organism, and the algae has a better chance at achieving photosynthesis.

I actually decided to go back to my photo album and I found this photo. Now I believe there is some green on this false turkey tail but I also feel like there is developing lichen on this specific tree bark.

References:

Kuo, M. (2008, December). Stereum ostrea. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/stereum_ostrea.html

Online Image. Retrieved from Missouri Department of conservation.Web site: https://nature.mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/thin-maze-flat-polypore

Volk, T. (2000).Retrieved from http://TomVolkFungi.net Web site: http://botit.botany.wisc.edu/toms_fungi/nov2000.html

Posted on April 13, 2019April 30, 2019

Blog post #3

FALSE TURKEY TAIL or Stereum ostrea

A eukaryotic organism that is categorized under the phylum and class of fungi: Basidiomycota

S. ostrea is a heterotroph, meaning it does not produce its own food rather it obtains its nutrients from the environment. Like we do (:

S. ostrea likes to have decaying/rotting wood on the menu. (Hornbeck, 2015). #yummy

S. ostrea can be referred as saprophytes because they break down decaying tree, tree trunks and plants on forest floor. #envionmentallyimportant

This organism can exist as a microscopic form and as a macroscopic form. The microscopic form is known as a spore and is a single cell form to begin with. The macroscopic form is known as a mycelium or collection of hyphae and is the multicellular form.

S. ostrea is a fungal pathogen in plants (within rotting wood). In the plant the organism exists as the mycelia form and in the environment the organism exists as yeast/spore form.

The fruiting body (see picture A) exist above ground or in this picture above tree and is the spore creating/ reproductive structure.

The mycelium network is underground.

The mycelium of a fungus spreading through soil (Credit: Nigel Cattlin / Alamy)

When ready to reproduce, the mycelium develops the brackets outside the wood, which are reproductive structures. Please visit site to see 3-day difference of fruiting bodies.

This video describes the life cycle of Basidiomycota.

The life cycle of S. ostrea is like what came first the chicken or the egg?

baby sees GIF

In this case its like what came first the spore or fruiting body? The truth is I don’t have the answer. I’m not sure anyone really does. The cycle does start with a spore. This spore could have traveled by means of wind or water. When conditions for growth are met, this spore can grow hyphae and eventually a network will be formed. The growth continues until a fruiting body emerges.

BTW this is the unique feature of the class Basidiomycota. Fruiting body dispersing the seeds is a form of a-sexual reproduction. When spore A from parent A and spore B from parent B grow hyphae together. Spore A and spore B are sharing their unique genes and creating hopefully a better fit fungus and deff more genetically diverse. This is the most simple way to explain sexual reproduction. (Lepp, 2013).

References:

Hornbeck, T. (2015, December). False Turkey Tail Mushroom. Retrieved from website: https://epod.usra.edu/blog/2015/12/false-turkey-tail-mushroom.html
Lepp, H. (2013, January). The mycelium. Retrieved from: https://www.anbg.gov.au/fungi/mycelium.html

Posted on April 11, 2019May 2, 2019

Blog Post 2

Hi everyone, I have lied to you all due to my lack of research.

The organism that I have photographed is not a Turkey Tail. My organism is actually a false Turkey Tail. This is a common mistake. According to the article that I read, the underside of the fungus is what actually gives it away(Bergamin 2013). I did say in my Blog post 1 that I did not get a good picture of the underside, so I zoomed into a picture that I took. Indeed, the underside of my organism is smooth and does not contain visible pores. Please see below for images.

The scientific name of false turkey tail is Stereum ostrea

You can watch this 34 second video to get a better explanation of how to tell true turkey tail apart from fake turkey tail:

Belonging to the Phylum Basidiomycota.

False Turkey Tail is a saprophyte. Saprophytes refers to organisms that obtain nutrients from decomposing/decaying matter.
False Turkey tail can be considered single-celled or multicellular when it is in the form of a spore. The fruiting body showed in my blog is the sexual form and multicellular form. This is referred as Dimorphism. If you’re dimorphic then you are able to go from a microscopic yeast form to a macroscopic mycelial form. We humans are not dimorphic. LOL. I wish.

A unique feature of fungal cell structure is Chitin!

There cell wall can be composed of chitin, mannan and glucan.

Beta-glucans are also found in the cell wall of fungal cells, they are made up of sugars.

Their plasma membrane consist of ergosterol instead of cholesterol (what we got).

The false turkey tail is also non-motile therefore it has no locomotive structures.

Genome Size: 46.51 Mega-base pairs (Floudas et al. 2012).

A fun fact of S. ostrea, is that they produce a gene that codes for lignolytic enzymes. I am not sure what genes that is. However, the cool feature about lignolytic enzymes is that my organism uses these enzymes to catalyze the reaction of breaking down lignin. Lignin is found in cell walls of wood, bark and even plants! (Velmurugan and Incharoensakdi 2018).

The fruiting body of my organism can range from 1-5 cm. The shape of my organism appear as frosted flakes. I say this because a flake has an irregular shape such as my organism. A flake is also thin. The spores are generally measured in micrometers.

Cool features of the false turkey tail are the colors. The colors on each “tail” can range from yellow, brown, tan, reddish and even green (Kuo 2008).

References:

Kuo, M. (2008, December). Stereum hirsutum. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/stereum_hirsutum.html
Floudas D, Binder M, Riley R, Barry K, Blanchette RA, Henrissat B, Martinez AT, Otillar R, Spatafora JW, Yadav JS, Aerts A, Benoit I, Boyd A, Carlson A, Copeland A, Coutinho PM, de Vries RP, Ferreira P, Findley K, Foster B, Gaskell J, Glotzer D, Gorecki P, Heitman J, Hesse C, Hori C, Igarashi K, Jurgens JA, Kallen N, Kersten P, Kohler A, Kues U, Kumar TK, Kuo A, LaButti K, Larrondo LF, Lindquist E, Ling A, Lombard V, Lucas S, Lundell T, Martin R, McLaughlin DJ, Morgenstern I, Morin E, Murat C, Nagy LG, Nolan M, Ohm RA, Patyshakuliyeva A, Rokas A, Ruiz-Duenas FJ, Sabat G, Salamov A, Samejima M, Schmutz J, Slot JC, St John F, Stenlid J, Sun H, Sun S, Syed K, Tsang A, Wiebenga A, Young D, Pisabarro A, Eastwood DC, Martin F, Cullen D, Grigoriev IV, Hibbett DS
The Paleozoic origin of enzymatic lignin decomposition reconstructed from 31 fungal genomes.
Science. 2012 Jun 29;336(6089):1715-9. doi: 10.1126/science.1221748.
Bergamin, A. (2013, November). How Can You Tell a True Turkey Tail from an Imposter? Retrieved from web site: https://baynature.org/2013/11/28/can-tell-true-turkey-tail-imposter/
Velmurugan, R. and Incharoensakdi, A (2018). Nanomaterials in Plants, Algae, and Microorganisms. Retrieved from web site: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/lignin

Posted on April 3, 2019April 3, 2019

Turkey Tail Tale: Part I

For my blog project I decided to go to a place where my heart was stolen 6 years ago. This place is now known as Tumbling Creek Trails and Research Area. This place is located on the University of North Georgia campus in Gainesville, GA.

I attended this school for two years before transferring to Georgia State University. As a student there I took Ecology and Botany so I became well aware of the different areas within the Tumbling Creek Woods. The reason that I chose this place is because of how familiar I am with that area.
I enjoy this trail because of the diversity of plant species and the different landmarks. I will include a map of the trails.

Within the trail there are wetlands, a very cool forest with large trees (I could not find it the day I went but I will go back with my dogs soon, also this is where my heart was stolen) and then an area with an invasive species known as Chinese Privet.
I invited my friend Vanessa to come with me (because I never go hiking alone). Prior to entering the trail, I told her my goal was to find mushrooms for my project.

Due to the recent weather I was not able to locate the fruiting bodies I was hoping for.

Finally, after one hour searching, we found tiny fruiting bodies on tree bark. Actually my friend had seen them earlier on the hike and I blew it off. The microbe I am choosing to study is a fungus known as Turkey tail. Cool name huh?
The fungus itself did not interest me at appearance but after doing research on it I became more intrigued.