aba: fungi imperfecti

[Richard Winder]

In article <117e89b0 at fri.cri.nz>, RIDLEYG at fri.cri.nz writes:

[snip]

>surly that is what the deut's are. You make an isolation and obtain an asexual 
>state but can not find a sexual form, it appears to be a new species so you go 
>to the deut's for a name, a tag, a handle, what ever you want to call it, its a 
>means of filing information in a retrievable system.

It goes even beyond this.  In my line of work, I isolate weed pathogens.  I am
constantly working with deuteros, because the imperfect (asexual) spore forms
tend to dominate during the warmer part of the year when I am interested in
using the fungi for weed control.  Although this is not a hard-and-fast thing,
many sexual type spores in the ascomycetes tend to form during colder weather
or other special conditions.  It is very convenient (and reasonable) to have
the deuteros grouped together for ID purposes, because of their similar 
biology, ecological niche, etc.  Even if the DNA people were to outlaw this
group after establishing all of the "true" taxonomic affinities, I doubt if 
you can make it go away- it reflects natural order.  Sure its artificial- but 
who cares, as long as it gets the job done, and the established perfect 
connections can be found in a list?  Just my 2 cents.   -RSW


  RICHARD WINDER                    Title: Research Scientist
  Canadian Forest Service           Phone: (604) 363-0773
  Victoria, B.C.                    Internet: RWINDER at A1.PFC.Forestry.CA