Ronald H. Petersen
Ronald H. Petersen |
Distinguished Professor, Department of
Botany;
|
Emphasis on fruitbody morphology in the basidiomycetes has led to confusion in taxonomy and great difficulty in elucidating evolutionary trends and directions. Several steps have been taken to alleviate this situation, including greater emphasis on microscopic characters, biochemistry, genetics, sexuality, and culture, and sampling of much wider geographic areas in order to furnish more insight into variations within taxa from fresh specimens and cultures.
Two approaches to these problems occupy this laboratory. First, morphological analyses of several fungal groups (i.e., corticioids, boletes, agarics, coral fungi) have helped to bring order at that resolutional level. Second, establishment of an extensive culture collection has enabled mating experiments to be performed, both to ascertain mating systems of individual taxa, and to explore the geographical range of potentially interbreeding populations. This, in turn, allows comparison of morphotaxa to their biological species analog.
While such mating experiments elucidate in vitro mating ability, they do not demonstrate in vivo interbreeding. Collaborative research with Dr. Karen Hughes' lab using molecular and isoenzyme electrophoretic techniques is designed to test hypotheses on long-distance dispersal and interbreeding in selected taxa.
Currently, students are engaged in such biosystematic studies in Melanotus, Gymnopus (=Collybia) and Polyporus, with other projects on Flammulina and Lentinula.
Wise, K., and R.H. Petersen. 1998. A Natural History of Mt. LeConte. Univ. Tennessee Press, Knoxville. 146 pp.
Petersen, R. H. 1995. There's more to a mushroom than meets the eye: Mating studies in the Agaricales. Mycologia 87(1): 1-17.
Petersen, R. H. & S. C. McCleneghan. 1995. Mating systems of antipodal agarics: an unreported taxon and range extensions. New Zealand J. Bot. 33: 93-98.
Wu, Q., K. W. Hughes & R. H. Petersen. 1995. A reevaluation of taxa of Clavicorona subg. Ramosa based on morphology, compatibility, and laccase electrophoretic patterns. Sydowia 47: 89-124.
Petersen, R. H. 1995. Contributions of mating studies to mushroom systematics. Canad. J. Bot. 73(Suppl.): S831-S842.
Petersen, R. H. & G. S. Ridley. 1996. A New Zealand Pleurotus with multiple-species sexual compatibility. Mycologia 88: 198-207.
Gordon, S. A. & R. H. Petersen. 1997. Infraspecific variation among geographically separated collections of Marasmius androsaceus. Mycol. Res. 101: 365-371.
Petersen, R. H.. 1997. Mating systems in Hymenomycetes: new reports and taxonomic implications. Mycotaxon 63:225-257.
Petersen, R. H. & S. C. McCleneghan. 1997. Reports on long-distance sexual compatibility in Agaricales. Nordic J. Bot. 17:419-432.
Johnson, J. E. & R. H. Petersen. 1997. Mating systems in Xeromphalina species. Mycologia 89: 393-399.
Petersen, R. H., D. B. G. Nicholl, & K. W. Hughes. 1997. Mating systems of some putative polypore-agaric relatives. Plant Syst. Evol. 207:135-158.
Hughes, K.W., and R.H. Petersen. 1998. Relationships among Omphalotus species (Paxillaceae) based on restriction sites in the ribosomal ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 region. Plant Syst. Evol. 211: 231-237.
Petersen, R.H., and K.W. Hughes. 1998. Mating systems in Omphalotus (Paxillaceae, Agaricales). Plant Syst. Evol. 211: 217-229.
Redhead, S.A., R.H. Petersen, and A.S. Methven. 1999. Flammulina (Agaricales): F. stratosa a new New Zealand species distantly related to the cultivates Eonki mushroom. Canad. J. Bot. 76: 1589-1595.
Sime, A.D. and R.H. Petersen. 1999. Intercontinental interrelationships among disjunct populations of Melanotus (Strophariaceae, Agaricales). Mycotaxon 71: 481-492.
Redhead, S.A. and R.H. Petersen. 1999. New species, varieties and combinations in the genus Flammulina. Mycotaxon 71: 285-294.
Petersen, R.H., and K.W. Hughes. 1999. Species and speciation in mushrooms. BioScience 49: 440-452.
Address: Department of Botany, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996-1100; E-mail: repete@utk.edu ; Telephone: 865 974-2256; Fax: 865 974-2258.