Studies on the basidial Formation by Sclerotium rolfsii Sacc XII. A Discussion on the basidial Stage of Sclerotium Rolfsii Sacc. Isolates and its Identity

In the earlier papers (Series I to XI, 1965) the authors had already reported the success obtained in getting basidial stage of Sclerotium rolfsii Sacc. isolates from potato, Colocasia and groundnut (Arachis hypogea L.) and media as well as conditions under which these stages could be obtained. It is proposed to review these in this paper and discuss in detail the basidial stage of S. rolfsii and its nomenclature. The authors attempted to obtain basidial stage using four isolates, two from potato named as potato isolate 1 and 2 and one each from Colocasia and groundnut. Of these isolates, success in getting the basidial stage was obtained by potato isolate 2, Colocasia and groundnut. While basidial formation by S. rolfsii appears to be difficult either in nature or on the culture media, in some isolates of S. rolfsii, particularly in those which Goto (1930—35) had classified under his groups I and II, no much difficulty in getting this stage was encuuntered. G o t o (1930) included potato isolate under his group I was easily spore formers, Colocasia isolate under group II as spore formers and groundnut isolate under group IV as non-spore forming strains. So far, perfect stage of the potato isolate had been reported by G o t o (1930) from Japan, C u r z i (1931) from Italy, B a r r e t t (1934) from U.S.A. and by M u n d k u r (1934) and M i s r a et al (1960) from India. G o t o (1930) also noticed that one of his potato isolates did not produce basidia and hence he classified this isolate under group IV as non-spore forming strain. Except G o t o (1930—35) and A l t s t a t t (1941), who reported the perfect stage of S. rolfsii from Colocasia and groundnut respectively, no report of getting the perfect stage of this fungus from these two hosts is forthcoming.