200 years of taxonomic confusion: Sporendonema and allies.

The genus Sporendonema (Gymnoascaceae, Onygenales) was introduced in 1827 with the type species S. casei for a red mould on cheese. Cheese is a consistent niche for this species. Sphaerosporium equinum is another species classified in Gymnoascaceae and has also been reported from cheese. Recently, other habitats have been reported for both Sporendonema casei and Sphaerosporium equinum. The present study aimed to investigate the taxonomy of Sporendonema and Sphaerosporium, as well as a close neighbour, Arachniotus. Two strains of Hormiscium aurantiacum, another related cheese-associated species were also included in the analyses. Strains were evaluated in terms of macro- and micromorphology, physiology including salt tolerance, growth rate at different temperatures, casein degradation, cellulase activity, lipolytic activity, and multi-locus phylogeny with sequences of the nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer region, the D1-D2 region of the large subunit and partial ß-tubulin locus sequences. The results showed that the analysed species were congeneric, and the generic names Arachniotus and Sphaerosporium should be reduced to the synonymy of Sporendonema. Therefore, four new combinations as well as one lectotype and one epitype were designated in Sporendonema. Two strains attributed to Sphaerosporium equinum from substrates other than cheese were found to be phylogenetically and morphologically deviant and were introduced as a new species named Sporendonema isthmoides.

Effects of Varying Levels of Fungal (Arachniotus sp.) Treated Wheat Straw as an Ingredient of Total Mixed Ration on Growth Performance and Nutrient Digestibility in Nili Ravi Buffalo Calves.

The study was carried out to explore the effects of replacing wheat straw with fungal treated wheat straw as an ingredient of total mixed ration (TMR) on the growth performance and nutrient digestibility in Nili Ravi buffalo male calves. Fungal treated wheat straw was prepared using Arachniotus sp. Four TMRs were formulated where wheat straw was replaced with 0 (TMR1), 33 (TMR2), 67 (TMR3), and 100% (TMR4) fungal treated wheat straw in TMR. All TMRs were iso-caloric and iso-nitrogenous. The experimental TMRs were randomly assigned to four groups of male calves (n = 6) according to completely randomized design and the experiment continued for four months. The calves fed TMR2 exhibited a significant improve in dry matter intake, average daily weight gain, feed conversion ratio and feed economics compared to other groups. The same group also showed higher digestibility of dry matter, crude protein, neutral-, and acid detergent fibers than those fed on other TMRs. It is concluded that TMR with 33% fungal-treated wheat straw replacement has a potential to give an enhanced growth performance and nutrient digestibility in male Nili Ravi buffalo calves.