Structure, biogenesis and nutricional dependence of <em>Paxillus ammoniavirescens</em> sclerotia (Boletales, Paxillaceae)

The objective of this work was to study the structure, composition, and biogenesis of Paxillus ammoniavirescens sclerotia, as well as their possible use as inoculum for birch mycorrhizae. By means of histochemical stains, a change of the composition and internal organization of these structures during their maturation was observed. The formation of sclerotia begins with a clustering of hyphae that gives rise to a structure with pseudoparenchyma in the central part; these immature sclerotia develop to form, at maturity, a pseudoparenchymatic outer cortex of 6 or 7 layers of hyphae around an inner medulla. The hyphae of mature sclerotia have a large number of protein bodies in contrast to scarce lipid accumulations. The formation of sclerotia is influenced by the characteristics of the culture medium and the temperature. The greatest number of sclerotia was obtained by reducing the concentration of the diammonium phosphate to 0.94 mM in the MMN medium, and maintaining the cultures at 8 °C for 2 weeks. Finally it was shown that the sclerotia of this species can be used directly as inoculum, both to generate mycelium in the culture media and to initiate mycorrhizae in birch plants in vitro.