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Eric W.A. Boehm,
PhD Assistant
Professor, Microbiology Kean University Website: http://www.kean.edu/
Home of the Hysteriaceae
& Mytilinidiaceae      The Molecular Systematics of the Hysteriaceae & Mytilinidiaceae Intent: This website is devoted
to mycology, a branch of science that is devoted to the study of Fungi (see Bryce Kendrick's The Fifth Kingdom), specifically as it relates to the taxonomy and molecular phylogenetics of a group of bitunicate ascomycetes belonging to
the Hysteriaceae and to the Mytilinidiaceae (Eumycota, Dikarya, Ascomycota, Pezizomycotina, Dothideomycetes, Pleosporomycetidae). On
the Tree of Life Project, see the True Fungi or Eumycota portal for an introduction to the fungi, and The Hysteriales on the Tree of Life for an introduction to this group of fungi. On this website, I have tried to assemble much of what
is known of these fungi, including most of the pertinent literature since Henrico Tode's first descriptions in the 1790s to
the present day. Central to these endeavors has been Hans Zogg's 1962 monograph Die Hysteriaceae s. str. und Lophiaceae,
unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der mitteleuropäischen Formen. Beiträge zur Kryptogamenflora der Schweiz,
Band 11, Heft 3: 1-190. This work has served as the basis for our current understanding of the group. As such, I have
translated the dichotomous keys into English and present these here for the first time. However, a number of new species have
been described since Zogg's 1962 publication (Amano 1983; Barr 1975, 1990; Barr & Blackwell 1980; Checa et al. 2007;
Chlebicki & Knudsen 2001; Darker 1963; Goree 1974; Kantvilas & Coppins 1997; Lorenzo & Messuti 1998; Mathiassen
1993; Messuti & Lorenzo 1997, 2003; Pande & Rao 1991; Speer 1986; Sutton 1970; Tilak & Kale 1968; van der Linde
1992; Vasilyeva 2000, 2001). I have therefore incorporated the new species into the original keys to produce a set of revised
and updated keys. The original keys were altered to accommodate new species, as well as to account for variation in ascospore
measurements as presented by different authors, or to account for widened distribution reports. I hope other workers find
these revised and updated keys useful for arriving at a species identification - for that is the goal of this website. Additionally,
for the description of various taxa, I have quoted past workers of the group directly, duly citing the references from where
the quotes originated. This was done so as to provide for a number of different opinions as to the specific characteristics
for each species. It is hoped that this website will be dynamic and will incorporate future taxonomic changes as they manifest
in the literature, most importantly those that originate from the acquisition of new DNA and protein sequence data. The goal
is to determine whether morphological features historically used in the delineation of higher taxa in the Hysteriaceae
and Mytilinidiaceae are phylogenetically informative in the context of sequence-based phylogenies. This site is dedicated
to those mycologists who furthered our understanding of this group of fungi, on whose shoulders we stand. Current Research: Research interests are centered on the molecular systematics of the Hysteriaceae & Mytilinidiaceae. The specific aim of my current research program is to sequence phylogenetically important genomic regions (e.g., the small (nuSSU) & large (nuLSU) ribosomal subunits, the transcription elongation factor (TEF1) & the RNA polymerase subunit II (RPB2) to: (1) investigate ordinal affiliations within the Dothideomycetes for each family; (2) verify the placement of genera within each family and assess their degree of monophyly; and (3) to determine which morphological features are phylogenetically significant and therefore useful for generic delineation. Essentially, I am interested in whether phylogenies based on molecular character states will prove to be concordant with previous morphology-based classifications. Future projects will address speciation within each of the terminal clades defined. Towards this end, in conjunction with a number of international collaborators, a large culture collection has been assembled based on single ascospore isolates, representing the USA, England, France, Italy, Germany, Russia, Argentina, South Africa, Columbia and Tasmania. This culture collection is being added to continuously, with living cultures deposited with the Centraalbureau voor Schimmelcultures (CBS), The Netherlands, and dried voucher herbarium specimens depostied with the US National Fungus Collections (BPI), Beltsville, MD. Prior Research: Past research projects have included: (1) the elucidation of ultrastructural fungal karyotypes using transmission electron microscopy among the plant rust fungi & allies (Boehm & McLaughlin, 1990; Boehm et al., 1992; Boehm & Bushnell, 1992); (2) the use of pulse field gel electrophoresis to deduce electrohporetic karyotypes among isolates of the Banana Wilt Fungus, Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cubense (Boehm et al., 1994; Kistler et al., 1995); (3) the use of microsatellite primers to investigate population structure among isolates of the Apple Scab Pathogen, Venturia inaequalis (Boehm et al., 2003), marine monogonot rotifers used in aquaculture (Boehm et al., 2000) and the Pistachio Blight Pathogen Botryosphaeria dothidea (Maet al., 2001); and (4) the development of species-specific molecular diagnostics, based on VNTR satellites for PCR & dot blot hybridization, that were capable of detecting and quantifying in planta the brown rot of stone fruit fungal pathogen Monilinia fructicola (Boehm et al., 2001). Together, these publications formed the basis for five author citations in the leading university-level mycology textbook, namely Introductory Mycology, Fourth Edition (1996), by C.J. Alexopoulos, C.W. Mims and M. Blackwell. Two were also cited in the leading fungal genetics textbook, Fungal Populations and Species, by John Burnett (2003). Publications: (6) Backlund, J.E., Boehm, E.W.A., Szabo, L.J. and W.R. Bushnell. 1992. Genome
size and chromosome number for the Wheat Stem Rust Fungus Puccinia graminis f.sp. tritici. Vortr. Pflanzenzuchtg.
24: 19-21.
(10) Boehm, E.W.A., Gibson, O. and E. Lubzens. 2000. Cloning and characterization
of satellite DNA sequences from the commercially important marine monogonont rotifers Brachionus rotundiformis and
B. plicatilis. Marine Biotechnology 2: 38-48.
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