Fig 1) Globose vesicles at the apex of an erect sporangiophore. Fig 2) Numerous few-spored sporangiola, covered with capitate appendages. Fig 3) Smooth zygospores between opposed suspensors bearing branched appendages. Images by Kerry O'Donnell

Radiomyces spectabilis Embree NRRL 2753 (= CBS 255.60) is the type strain of a zygomycete fungus (Radiomycetaceae, Mucorales) that was originally isolated from lizard dung in California (Embree 1959).  Three other isolates of R. spectabilis are known, two made from lizard dung collected in Mexico and the third from mouse dung found in India (Benny and Benjamin 1991).  Radiomyces spectabilis produces mostly few-spored sporangiola on globose vesicles that are produced at the apex of an erect sporangiophore (Fig. 1).  Numerous few-spored sporangiola, which are covered with capitate appendages (Fig. 2), are produced on the apical vesicles (Kirk and Benny 2008).  Radiomyces spectabilis is self-fertile or homothallic and produces smooth zygospores between opposed suspensors bearing branched appendages (Fig. 3).  The whole-genome sequence of R. spectabilis advances the 1000 Fungal Genomes Project, which is focused on elucidating the evolution of early diverging fungi (Spatafora et al. 2016), by providing a representative of the Radiomycetaceae, an important monophyletic family within the Mucorales (Walthers et al. 2013).

References:

Benny GL & Benjamin RK. 1991. The Radiomycetaceae (Mucorales; Zygomycetes). III. A new species of Radiomyces, and cladistic analysis and taxonomy of the family; with a discussion of evolutionary ordinal relationships in Zygomycotina. Mycologia 83:713–735.

Embree RW. 1959. Radiomyces, a new genus in the Mucorales. American Journal of Botany 46:25–30.

Kirk PM & Benny GL. 2008. Radiomyces spectabilis. IMI descriptions of fungi and bacteria No. 1780:1–2.

Spatafora JW, Chang Y, Benny GL, Lazarus K, Smith ME, et al. 2016. A phylum-level phylogenetic classification of zygomycete fungi based on genome-scale data. Mycologia 108:1028–1046.

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.