I recall reading a publication where the authors estimated (or was it speculated on) a ) the proportion of fungi that cannot be kept in culture and b) the proportion of fungi that do not seem to produce fruiting bodies. I cannot remember what publicaiton it was though. Does anyone know?
we estimated fungi biomass in natural river samples as a ergosterol concentration, and pararelly counting on agar plate with antibiotics. Correlation is high. But probabaly condia have not contained ergosterol ? so our number of fungi is quiye high. Our paper just printed out ( we can offer first pdf draft
Thanks for your answer. I was more thinking of the total proportion of fungal species, out of the estimated 1.5 million, however. Still, I'd be curious to read your article.
Presumably, you did not really mean to ask about the proportion that cannot be kept in culture. The first estimate of the known species of fungi present in culture collections worldwide is that of Hawksworth (Mycol. Res. 95; 641-655 1991) who came to the figure of 17% of the known species, and less than 1% of the world estimated species. There does not seem to have a figure produced for those not producing fruiting bodies either in culture.
Did someone say conidia do not contain ergosterol? I was not sure as the wording was scrambled. In any case, it has been estimated that a single conidium contains 5 pg ergosterol (I can supply ref.).
From my short experience, comparition fungi biomass and abundance ( plate culture) shows that conidia do not contain ergosterol.
This reference might help.
The use of ergosterol to measure exposure to fungal propagules in indoor air.
Miller JD, Young JC.
Source
Plant Research Centre, Agriculture and AgriFood, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Abstract
This report concerns the development of a method for the measurement of ergosterol in indoor air as a determinant of fungal exposure. Ergosterol was determined in spores of 11 species of Aspergillus, Penicillium, and Cladosporium selected from the most common molds in 400 homes in Ontario. Spore ergosterol content was about 1 microgram/mg, which is the range reported for mycelia, and varied by about 25% for the species tested. Ergosterol was determined in bedroom air samples taken in the winter in homes in southern Ontario. The median ergosterol value corresponded to a total concentration of fungal spores on the order of 10 to 10(2) per m3, in the range for other studies where total and viable propagules were determined by other methods. The sampling of air for ergosterol is a robust method for assessing fungal biomass in air, but provides no information on the species present.
(Hello Patricia)
Pasanen A-L, Pietila KY, Pasanen P, Kalliokoski P, Tarhanen J (1999)
Ergosterol content in various fungal species and biocontaminated
building materials. Appl Environ Microbiol 65:138–142
The above is the paper I obtained the figure for ergosterol in a conidium. I cited it in my paper on growing Fusarium in water (Paterson 2007). Why would condia not contain ergosterol?
Hi Russell. David and I send our best regards to you. Long time no see!!
Yes, I don't understand the confusion about this.
hello , I am interested with this project . you can find fundamental ideas in this paper I send to you .
See page 4, right hand column,
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/21501203.2019.1614106?needAccess=true
" The literature survey revealed a ratio of cultured fungal numbers to OTUs as 1:0.6– 1:107.3 according to different culture-independent methods, with an average ratio as 1:8.8. Considering their overlaps (Table 2), the total fungal estimation should be 7.8–8.8 times that of culture-dependent methods. Based on the widely accepted estimate of 1.5 million culturable fungal species (Hawksworth 1991) and then 2.2–3.8 million (Hawksworth and Luecking 2017), our estimation range of total fungal diversity is about 12 million (11.7–13.2) species"
There's no mention of fruiting body proportions in terms of figures but you will find it discussed so the references might get you to where you want
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