Grosmannia clavigera

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Grosmannia clavigera Taken from TRIA-Net UAlberta Photo by S. Bluemel.

Classification

Fungi; Ascomycota; Pezizomycotina; Sordariomycetes; Ophiostomatales; Ophiostomataceae; Grosmannia

Species

NCBI: [1]

Grosmannia clavigera

Description and Significance

G. clavigera is a species of sac fungus that parasitizes pine trees. This fungus is one of the microbes responsible in the blue stain fungal infections that plagues pine trees throughout Canada and the United States but despite its name this infection is often grey or black. The fungus, and thus the infection, is passed between trees by the bark beetles (Scolytidae). The combined pathogenicity of G. clavigera, and other fungi, with the mobility of the mountain pine beetle have resulted in the death of over 19 million acres of pine forest throughout the Americas.

Genome Structure

Describe the size and content of the genome. How many chromosomes? Circular or linear? Other interesting features? What is known about its sequence?

Cell Structure, Metabolism and Life Cycle

Interesting features of cell structure; how it gains energy; what important molecules it produces.

Ecology and Pathogenesis

Mutualism with The Mountain Pine Beetle

G. clavigera has evolved a symbiosis with mountain pine beetles. The mountain pine beetle has evolved a specialized structure in its head, known as the mycangium, that carries spores of symbiotic fungi, such as G. clavigera, with them as they colonize new trees. The adult beetles bore into trees forming complex structures, known as galleries, to lay their eggs into. Through their tunneling the beetles distribute these microbes which become active and infect the tree. As G. clavigera proliferates through the tubules of the tree it stuffs them up preventing the flow of sap, terpenoids, and any other tree defenses to the outer layer of the living wood, where the beetles are living, thus protecting them.

Parasitism of Pine Trees

Grosmannia clavigera is one of the species of fungus that causes blue staining in wood, which is often actually gray or black. This coloration is the result of the fungi melanizing as it spreads. As the fungus spreads throughout the wood they continue to stop up the trees tubules, preventing the flow of water, sugars, and other nutrients throughout the tree resulting in the eventual death of the tree. G. clavigera feeds off of the tree's resources during this process, it has even evolved the specialized ability to feed on the terpenoids the trees produce for defense and other purposes.

References

[Sample reference] Takai, K., Sugai, A., Itoh, T., and Horikoshi, K. "Palaeococcus ferrophilus gen. nov., sp. nov., a barophilic, hyperthermophilic archaeon from a deep-sea hydrothermal vent chimney". International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology. 2000. Volume 50. p. 489-500.

Author

Page authored by Joshua Jones, student of Prof. Jay Lennon at Indiana University.