albus isolate cz-
620 and was distinct from the more recent isolates of M.
856 I. Atmosukarto et al. / Plant Science 169 (2005) 854–861
albus from Australia (Fig. 1, upper left). Scanning
electron microscopy of the mycelium of isolate I-41.3s
revealed many of the mycelial features that have been
associated with this group of organisms including intertwining
of hyphae into rope like strands, hyphal coiling, and
sometimes submerged growth under the agar surface
(Fig. 1, upper right). In addition, unlike any of the other
isolates of M. albus that have been studied to date, I-41.3s
displayed unique knobby-like hyphal tips along with a fish
net like structure loosely covering some of the hyphal
strands (Fig. 1, lower left and lower right). The fishnet
structure is probably an artifact produced by the dehydration
processes involved in sample preparation of the fungus for
SEM observations. It is suggested to be a complex
carbohydrate or mucilaginous slimy layer that covers the
hyphae of isolate I-41.3s. This slimy layer was easily
observed by environmental scanning electron microscopy,
which does not destroy the integrity of complex carbohydrates
(Hess and Strobel, unpublished observations). Other
isolates of M. albus do not seem to possess this structure.
Partial ITS and complete 5.8S rDNA sequence data of
isolate I-41.3s was obtained and deposited as entry
AY927993 in GenBank. A Blast search of the database
indicated that at least a 99% sequence identity exists
between the sequences of isolate I-41.3s to the original
isolate of M. albus cz-620 (GeneBank deposit