Eocronartium muscicola: a basidiomycetous moss parasite exploiting gametophytic transfer cells

Abstract

The host–parasite interface in Eocronartium muscicola, Auriculariales sensu lato, was examined histologically for 6 of the 21 reported moss hosts, using light microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. A unique mode of fungal biotrophy was encountered in 5 of the 6 mosses analyzed, in which E. muscicola exploits gametophytic host transfer cells concomitant with varying degrees of supplantation of the moss sporophyte. Basidiocarps are restricted in these mosses to postfertilized archegonia, in which they are seen to associate with the sporophyte foot region, where they gain access to the host transfer cell nutritional interface. Basidiocarp ontogeny is presented as it relates to the development of the host–parasite interface. The relationship of E. muscicola to other simple-septate auricularioid taxa and the the Uredinales is discussed.