Several fungi of the ascomycete family Clavicipitaceae have been implicated as causative agents in the poisoning of grazing animals, where the fungi live within the tissues of grass plants and produce alkaloids toxic to animals but not to the plant. Our knowledge of these fungi and of their growth on and within various host plants is meager, however. Drs. James White and Gareth Morgan-Jones of Auburn University are studying North American members of this group of fungi, to improve delimitation of the species, identify normal host plants, analyze the mode of infection by the fungus, and determine the life cycles of the fungus through its various spore-producing stages. New characters from biochemical analyses of fungal pigments and from electrophoresis of fungal proteins are being sought, to add to traditional morphological characters in order to circumscribe a meaningful species concept for this group of fungi. Their classification is complicated by the fact that asexual, spore-forming stages, which are commonly collected in nature, have their own system of scientific names, independent of the sexually reproducing forms, which are often transitory, poorly collected, and poorly known. Biochemical features shared in common will help in linking the two stages of the life cycle, and make possible the comparison of related species. In turn, such insight will help determine whether taxonomically related fungi infect related groups of host plants or whether disparate fungal groups have evolved the ability to live inside host grasses.
