Reproductive structures of Arnium leporinum [Image credit: Andrew Miller, University of Illinois, Illinois Natural History Survey]

CSP 2019 Proposal "Comparative genomics and association mapping in Sordariales: insights into functional diversity in Neurospora and its relatives" aims to investigate the genomic bases of fungal thermophily and thermotolerance, biomass-degradation, and fungal-bacterial interactions. Sequencing multiple populations and species of Sordariales will enable comparative analysis across an order of biomass-degrading fungi frequently encountered in soil, compost and herbivore dung, and encompassing one of the few groups of thermophilic fungi.

Arnium leporinum CBS 365.69

Arnium leporinum CBS 365.69 was isolated from dung of rabbit, near Baarn, Netherlands. Arnium species have dark brown ascospores, which can be single-celled or with a transverse septum. The ascospores are often provided with one gelatinous appendage at each end or covered with a striated sheath (1,2). The genus Arnium is polyphyletic (2).

References

1. Krug, J. C., & Cain, R. F. (1972). Additions to the genus Arnium. Canadian Journal of Botany, 50(2), 367-373.
2. Kruys, Å., Huhndorf, S. M., & Miller, A. N. (2015). Coprophilous contributions to the phylogeny of Lasiosphaeriaceae and allied taxa within Sordariales (Ascomycota, Fungi). Fungal Diversity, 70, 101-113.