*Inocybaceae*: New skin for the Old Ceremony

• Researchers from University of Tennessee (US) and Universidad de Alcala (Spain) propose a reorganisation of genus Inocybe, the culmination of several publications which have shown the genus to be paraphyletic.
• ‘New skin for the Old Ceremony’ is from the title of the article and is the title of Leonard Cohen’s fourth album.
• Inocybe (s.l.) is a hyperdiverse genus, estimated to contain 1050 species, mostly LBMs that can be challenging to identify morphologically - even with microscopic characters.
• First described as Agaricus tribus Inocybe by Fries in 1821, and elevated to genus by Fries in 1863, it is typified by Inocybe relicina (Agaricus relicinus) that was described by Fries at the same time.
• Spent some time in Cortinariaceae before becoming the type genus of the family Inocybaceae, still some questions in the literature regarding relationship between Crepidotaceae and Inocybaceae.
• The genus has a worldwide distribution, grows terrestrially on soil, and is associated with up to 23 families of vascular plants (related to diversity?).
• New species regularly being found around the world, even in Europe.
• Common name is usually ‘Fibre Caps’, which is a translation of the Latin name, or some reference to the fibrous texture of the pileus found in many species.
• Rarely eaten because many species produce secondary metabolites such as muscarine and psilocybin, and some are deadly. This is particularly dangerous considering the difficulty of species determination.
• Notoriously difficult to culture by subculturing/cloning or germinating spores, which has only added to the complexity of elucidating the species diversity.
• To build phylogeny, six genes sequenced for 54 taxa from Inocybaceae: rpb1, rpb2, tef1, 28S, 18S, 5.8S.
• Seven genera are suggested: Newly defined Nothocybe and Pseudosperma, elevated Inosperma and Mallocybe, previously suggested Auritella and Tubariomyces, and the remaining Inocybe s.s.
• The suggestions have been adopted quickly in the literature, and it seems to be a broad improvement in relating the taxonomy to the phylogeny and reflecting the diversity and relationships more clearly.
• Some of the new genera are strongly supported, but there still seems to be uncertainty about some of the precise relationships. Although this should improve as more species are discovered and greater penetration is achieved for the smaller genera.
• Important features for distinguishing new genera:
o Existence of pleurocystidia.
o Shape of basidia.
o Spore shape.
o Texture of stipe apex.
o Texture of the pileus.
o Colour of basidiome (rubescent or brunnescent).
o Length of cheilocystidia.

P. Brandon Matheny, Alicia M. Hobbs & Fernando Esteve-Raventós (2020). Genera of Inocybaceae: New skin for the old ceremony, Mycologia, 112:1, 83-120, DOI: 10.1080/00275514.2019.1668906
http://inocybaceae.org/.../Matheny_GeneraInocybaceae_2020...

Posted on November 23, 2023 11:05 PM by shelbourne