Home • Mucor cordense RSA 1222 v1.0
multispored sporangia of 'Mucor' cordense. Image by Kerry O'Donnell
multispored sporangia of 'Mucor' cordense. Image by Kerry O'Donnell

Mucorcordense (Mucorales, Mucoraceae) was originally described as Helicostylum cordense (Mehrotra & Mehrotra 1963) within the mucoralean family Thamnidiaceae, and subsequently transferred to the monotypic genus Kirkomyces (Benny 1996).  However, molecular phylogenetic data indicate that this species is nested within Mucor (Walther et al. 2013); the two aforementioned morphologically defined families are polyphyletic (O’Donnell et al. 2000).  ‘Mucorcordense is presumed to be self-sterile or heterothallic given that it does not produce zygospores in culture.  B.S. Mehrotra, University of Allahabad, India deposited the single known isolate in the ARS Culture Collection in 1962 as Helicostylum cordense NRRL 2987 (= RSA 1222 = CBS 223.63).  This species produces multispored sporangia and few-spored sporangiola (Fig. 1) on the same sporangiophore. In support of the 1000 Fungal Genome Project, the whole-genome of ‘Mucorcordense should help elucidate evolution within the Mucorales and other early diverging fungi.

References
Benny GL. 1996. Kirkomyces, a new name for Kirkia Benny. Mycologia 87:922.
Mehrotra BS & Mehrotra BR. 1963. A new species of Helicostylum from India. Lloydia 26:27–28.
O’Donnell K, Lutzoni F, Ward TJ, Benny GL. 2000. Evolutionary relationships among mucoralean fungi (Zygomycota): Evidence for family polyphyly on a large scale. Mycologia 93:286─296.
Walther G, Pawłowska J, Alastruey-Izquierdo A, Wrzosek M, Rodriguez-Tudela JL, et al. 2013. DNA barcoding in Mucorales: an inventory of biodiversity. Persoonia 30:11–47.