Circinella

CIRCINELLA van Tieghem & Le Monn., 1873 (Ann. Sci. Nat. Bot., Sér. 5, 17:298); 9 spp. (Hesseltine and Fennell, 1955; Arambarri and Cabello, 1996).
≡ Circinumbella van Tieghem & Le Monn., 1872 (Compt. Rend. Hebd. Séances Acad. Sci. 74:999).

The sporangia of Circinella are multispored, more or less globose, a slight apophysis may be present, and they are borne on circinate sporangiophores. Zygospores are known in three species, C. angarensis, C. muscae, and C. umbellata. The zygospores of the latter two species are smooth walled and the suspensors are opposed.

Type species: C. umbellata

Species of Circinella:

C. angarensis (Schostakowitsch) Zycha, 1935 ( Kryptogamenflora d. mark Brandenburg 6a:98).
C. chinensis Naganishi & Kojiro, 1942 (J. Ferm. Technol. 20:409; nomen nudum, without a Latin diagnosis, Art. 36.1 of the ICBN, Greuter et al., 2000).
C. lacrymispora Arambarri & Cabello, 1996 (Mycotaxon 57:146).
C. linderi Hesseltine & Fennell; = Fennellomyces linderi (q.v.)
C. minor Lendner, 1905 (Bull. Herb. Boisser, Sér. II, 5:199).
C. muscae (Sorokine) Berlese & De Toni, 1888 (in P.A. Saccardo’s Sylloge Fungorum 7:216).
C. mucoroides Saito, 1907 (Centralbl. Bakteriol., Ser. II, 17:159).
C. rigida Smith, 1951 (Trans. Brit. Mycol. Soc 34:19).
C. simplex van Tieghem, 1875 (Ann. Sci. Nat., Bot., Sér. VI, 1:92).
C. umbellata van Tieghem & Le Monnier, 1873 (Ann. Sci. Nat., Bot., Sér. V, 17:300).

Doubtful species:

C. minutissima Faurel & Schotter, 1965 (Cahier de La Moboké 3:125).
C. indica Patil & Kale, 1981 Curr. Sci. 50:544) .

Circinella was monographed by Hesseltine and Fennell (1955). Circinella angarensis was later redescribed (Hesseltine and Ellis 1961) based on cultures collected in southern California. Faurel and Schotter (1965), Patil and Kale (1981), and Arambarri and Cabello (1996) described new species of Circinella. Circinella chinensis (Naganishi and Kojiro, 1942) is considered a synonym of C. mucoroides (Saito, 1907) by Hesseltine and Fennell (1955). Naganishi (1974), however, provided information showing that C. chinensis and C. mucoroides are different species. Mucor laxorrhizus (Schipper, 1989) may also belong in Circinella because it forms recurved sporangiophores and a persistent sporangial wall; M. laxorrhizus was treated as a species of uncertain position by Hesseltine and Fennell (1955).

Mil’ko (1968, 1970, 1974) transferred taxa from Pirella to Circinella and he described a new variety of Circinella circinans. Pirella (Benny and Schipper 1992) is considered a valid genus here (see below). Little and Young (1987) studied the morphology and ultrastructure of Circinella umbellata, including zygospore ontogeny.

Bibliography

Arambarri, A.M., and M.N. Cabello. 1996. Circinella lacrymispora sp. nov. A new mucoral isolated from Argentine soils. Mycotaxon 57:145-149.

Benny, G.L., and M.A.A. Schipper. 1992. Observations on Thamnidiaceae (Mucorales). IV. Pirella. Mycologia 84:52-63.

Faurel, L., and G. Schotter. 1965. Notes mycologiques VI.- Sur quelques champignons coprophiles d’Afrique Equatoriale. Cahiers de La Maboké 3:123-133.

Greuter, W., J. McNeill, F.R. Barrie, H.M. Burdet, V. Demoulin, T.S. Filgueiras, D.H. Nicolson, P.C. Silva, J.E. Skog, P. Trehane, N.J. Turland, and D.L. Hawksworth. 2000. International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (St. Louis Code). Königstein, Germany, Koeltz Scientific Books. 474 p.

Hesseltine, C.W., and J. J. Ellis. 1961. Notes on Mucorales, especially Absidia. Mycologia 53:406-426.

Hesseltine, C.W., and D. I. Fennell. 1955. The genus Circinella. Mycologia 47:193-212.

Little, S.A., and T.W.K. Young. 1987. Light and electron microscopy of Circinella umbellata (Mucorales). Trans. Brit. Mycol. Soc. 88:441-449.

Mil’ko, A.A. 1968. De nomenclatura mucoralium nonnullorum clavibus diagnosticis specierum Circinellae, Thamnidii et Kickxellae adjectis. Nov. Syst. Plant. non Vascul. 1968:79-88.

Mil’ko, A.A. 1970. De specie nova e genere Circinella van Tieghem et Le Monnier. Nov. syst. Plant non Vascul. 6:96-102.

Mil’ko, A.A. 1974. Opredeltiel’ mukora’nykh gribov [ Key to the identification of Mucorales ]. ‘Naukova Dumka’ , Kiev, Ukraine. 303 p.

Naganishi, H. 1974. On Circinella species isolated from Korean yeast cake (Kyokusi). Trans. Mycol. Soc. Japan 15:175-177.

Naganishi, H., and T. Kojiro. 1942. [ Circinella ]. J. Ferm. Technol. 20:408-414 [In Japanese].

Patil, S. D., and J. C. Kale. 1981. A new species of Circinella van Tiegh. and Le Monn. Curr. Sci. 50:544.

Saito, K. 1907. Mikrobiologische Studien über die Soya bereitung. Centralbl. Bakteriol., 2 Abt., 17:152-161.

Schipper, M.A.A. 1989. Mucor laxorrhizus. Studies in Mycology (Baarn) 31:151-155.

Updated Dec 03, 2008