Том 59, № 3 (2025)

Ergot causes significant economic losses every year in agriculture, livestock and food industry around the world. Currently, there is no way to provide complete protection of plants from infection by this pathogen, or complete purification of agricultural products from these mycotoxins. This review has reviewed the most current trends in ergot control, such as management of crop areas, grasslands and pastures, fungicides, detoxification of products, selection at plant resistance and reducing infections incidence associated with control of the cytoplasmic male sterility and fertility restoration. Efficient management of crop industry and production quality are the most used and reliable methods today. Product detoxification and fungicide applications require further research and can be used only in conjunction with some other method. Selection for resistance and restoration of fertility is promising ways in the future. In our opinion, the most promising at this stage is the combination of several methods of plant protection and product quality control. An integrated approach to solving this problem can maximally protect humans and pets from the toxic effects of ergot.

The phylogenetic analysis of three morphospecies from the genus Daedaleopsis: D. confragosa, D. septentrionalis, D. tricolor – are presented and discussed. It is shown that the sequences of the ITS region of rDNA from the basidiocarps of D. confragosa, D. tricolor and D. septentrionalis from the Urals, Siberia and the Far East form one cluster on the phylogenetic tree. The levels of nucleotide similarity between morphospecies are 98.95–99.29% and are within their intragroup values (98.65–99.44%). The nucleotide divergence (D_xy) between the sequences of morphospecies (0.69–1.08%) also does not exceed their nucleotide diversity (π): 0.52–1.34%. Neither the level of nucleotide divergence nor the level of nucleotide similarity of the ITS rDNA region sequences of D. confragosa, D. tricolor and D. septentrionalis do not reach the level necessary for distinguishing them as separate species: 3 and 97%, respectively. Taking this into account, as well as the sympatric nature of the distribution of D. confragosa, D. tricolor and D. septentrionalis, they should be considered as three morphological varieties of D. confragosa. From an ecological point of view, they are three ecotypes, one of which (D. confragosa var. confragosa) is confined to azonal biotopes, and two are latitudinal ecotypes: northern boreal (D. confragosa var. septentrionalis) and southern boreal one (D. confragosa var. tricolor).

The aim of our work was to generalize the data on the ecological, biological and morphological features of Calcipostia guttulata (Polyporales, Basidiomycota) by using the materials of our own research, revision of herbarium specimens, molecular barcoding of our own collections, available literature, iconography and information about the species stored on the GBIF portal. It is shown that C. guttulata is a widespread, but rare polypore in the Holarctic, confined to the first stages of drying of coniferous stands, primarily spruce forests, and manifests itself as a poorly studied core pathogen as well as a saprotroph colonizing coniferous deadwood, less often fallen trees. The morphological diagnosis of C. guttulata has been clarified, the substrate spectrum of the species, its distribution, and important from a forest pathology point of view relationships with insects have been identified most fully to date. The conservation status of the species and the prospects for its use in biotechnology are discussed.

The article is a first report on the findings of a study of macrofungi in the Sundozero Section Nature Monument (Republic of Karelia) were collected on surveys carried out in 2022–2024. As of now, the list of records from the Sundozero Section NM comprises 246 species of 149 genera, 66 families and 15 orders of basidiomycetes (agaricoid, aphyllophoroid, and gasteroid) and 8 species of ascomycetes of eight genera, six families, and three orders. The specimens of selected species are kept in the Herbarium of the Karelian Research Centre RAS (PTZ). Two species are new findings for the republic’s mycobiota (Hydnocristella himantia, Irpex litschaueri). Six species (Hydnocristella himantia, Hydnum umbilicatum, Irpex litschaueri, Thelephora caryophyllea, Tomentella ferruginea, Trechispora cohaerens) were encountered for the first time in the Karelia onegensis biogeographic province. The Sundozero Section NM is known to harbor 10 fungal species (16 locations) listed in the Red Data Book of the Republic of Karelia (2020) and 25 locations of indicator and specialist species of biologically valuable forests.

Thirty cultures of microfungi associated with insects were isolated and identified. These cultures were used to study the formation of proteolytic enzymes by the injection seeding method on agarized nutrient media containing sources of specific fibrillar and globular protein substrates. Data was collected on the presence of caseinolytic (EI from 1.00 to 2.75), collagenolytic (EI from 1.00 to 3.25), gelatinolytic (EI from 1.00 to 1.84), elastolytic (EI from 1.00 to 1.50), keratinolytic (EI from 1.00 to 2.00), and hemoglobin hydrolysis abilities (EI from 1.00 to 1.67) for promising strains. Promising strains were identified that showed high activity against tested substrates – nos 12 (Penicillium hirsutum 1), 19 (Cladosporium sphaerospermum 1), 21 (Aspergillus unguis 1), and 25 (Cladosporium herbarum 1). Submerged cultivation of these promising strains was carried out, and the proteolytic activity of extracellular proteases in the culture liquid was determined in relation to various protein substrates. The highest level of total proteolytic activity was determined in the culture liquid of Aspergillus ochraceus 1 (E_azocasein = 1.686 con.units/ml), collagenolytic activity during cultivation of the strain Cladosporium herbarum 1 (E_azocoll = 0.110 con. units/ml), as well as elastolytic activity using the chromogenic peptide substrate S-4760 in the culture fluid of the micromycete Aspergillus unguis 2 (E_S-4760 = 7.366 mmol pNA × 10^–3/ml/min) under conditions of deep cultivation of insect-associated microfungi strains.

Mycological herbaria represent unique and indispensable bioresource collections that play a key role in the study of fungal biodiversity. One of the largest collections of this kind is the herbarium of the All-Russian Institute of Plant Protection (VIZR, LEP), which houses the largest collection of microscopic phytopathogenic fungi in Russia. Over the course of long-term storage, some of the most valuable specimens lose their original properties and become unsuitable for studying by traditional morphological methods. Currently, molecular genetic methods are actively being applied to study herbarium collections, opening new opportunities for the analysis and preservation of biodiversity among phytopathogenic micromycetes. Phoma stem canker and Phoma leaf spot are one of the most widespread and harmfull diseases of cruciferous crops. The causal agents of this disease are closely related fungi, Plenodomus lingam and P. biglobosus. Within these species, two and seven phylogenetic lineages (subclades), respectively, have been identified. Reliable identification of these subclades is only possible using multilocus phylogenetic analysis of nucleotide sequences of the ITS locus and partial regions of actin (act) and β-tubulin (tub2). The aim of this study was to re-identify Plenodomus species in samples of cruciferous plants stored in the Mycological Herbarium LEP for 145–60 years using molecular phylogenetic methods. Nucleotide sequences of the ITS locus were determined in DNA extracted from 16 samples. According to the results of phylogenetic analysis based on ITS sequences, only four samples contained Plenodomus species as the causal agents of Phoma stem canker. In these four samples, in addition to the ITS locus, partial act and tub2 were successfully sequenced. In the phylogenetic tree constructed from nucleotide sequences of all three loci the samples clustered within a clade formed by representative strains of P. lingam subclade ‘brassicae’. Thus, it was reliably confirmed that the causal agent of Phoma stem canker in these four samples was P. lingam ‘brassicae’. Previously in Russia P. lingam ‘brassicae’ has been reliably identified in the Kaliningrad and Leningrad regions, P. biglobosus ‘brassicae’ in the Kaliningrad and Leningrad regions, the Republic of Adygea and Krasnodar Krai. As a result of this study, the presence of the fungus P. lingam ‘brassicae’ was confirmed in herbarium specimens collected in the Leningrad and Rostov regions and in Kazakhstan. To date, the earliest reliable finding of P. lingam in Russia is 114 years old.