page_title: Ascocoryne sarcoides
section_title: Role in tree decay
hierarchical_section_title: Ascocoryne sarcoides / Role in tree decay
caption_attribution_description: Ascocoryne sarcoides (Belgique/Belgium), forêt de hêtres et de chênes./ beeches and oaks forest. Auteur/Author&#160;: (user:Jean-Pol GRANDMONT) (Collection personnelle/Private collection). Document publié avec l'accord de l'auteur /Document published with the author agreement (Jean-Pol Grandmont). Date de la prise de vue/Capture date: Année/Year - Mois/Month - Jour/Day&#160;: 2005-02-28
context_page_description: Ascocoryne sarcoides is a species of fungus in the family Helotiaceae. The species name is derived from the Greek sarkodes. Formerly known as Coryne sarcoides, its taxonomical history has been complicated by the fact that it may adopt both sexual and asexual forms. Colloquially known as jelly drops or the purple jellydisc, this common fungus appears as a gelatinous mass of pinkish or purple-colored discs. Distributed widely in North America, Europe and Asia, A. sarcoides is a saprobic fungus and grows in clusters on the trunks and branches of a variety of dead woods. Field studies suggest that colonization by A. sarcoides of the heartwood of black spruce confers some resistance to further infection by rot-causing fungi. A. sarcoides contains the antibiotic compound ascocorynin, shown in the laboratory to inhibit the growth of several Gram-positive bacteria.
context_section_description: A number of field studies conducted in the boreal forest region of Northern Ontario (Canada) showed that A. sarcoides was found to be frequently associated with various deciduous and coniferous tree hosts that had been affected by the fungal disease known as heart rot; this discovery was noted as unusual, as most fungal tree infections are known to be caused by Basidiomycetes, not Ascomycetes. In the case of the commercially valuable tree species black spruce (Picea mariana), it was determined that prior colonization by A. sarcoides reduces the incidence of subsequent infection by common fungal pathogens, such as Fomes pini and Scytinostroma galactina; furthermore, A. sarcoides can exist in the wood with no noticeable harmful effects on the host. A similar relationship was shown later to exist with jack pine trees (species Pinus banksiana), whereby A. sarcoides inhibited Peniophora pseudopini, but had little effect on the subsequent growth of Fomes pini. The study also showed that A. sarcoides is isolated more frequently from defective wood as the age of the tree increases (trees examined in the study were over 80 years old), and that it can infect both uninfected heartwood as well as previously decayed wood; in the latter case it usually coexists with the causal fungi.
caption: Specimen found in a beech and oak forest in Belgium
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