Curvularia protuberata

Curvularia protuberata
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Fungi
Phylum:	Ascomycota
Class:	Dothideomycetes
Subclass:	Pleosporomycetidae
Order:	Pleosporales
Family:	Pleosporaceae
Genus:	Curvularia
Species:	C. protuberata
Binomial name
Curvularia protuberata Nelson 1965[1]

Curvularia protuberata is a species of fungus in the Pleosporaceae family. It forms a mutualistic relationship with Dichanthelium lanuginosum (panic grass) and Curvularia thermal tolerance virus that allows the grass to grow in soils that are far warmer than it normally tolerates. The mutualism allows the grass to thrive in soil that is 65°C in Yellowstone National Park. Experiments have shown that the plant can only survive when it is infected by C. protuberata and when C. protuberata is also infected with the virus. This is an example of a tritrophic interaction, as three organisms are interacting.^[2]

References

1. ^ Nelson, R. R.; Charles S. Hodges (1965). "A new species of Curvularia with a protuberant conidial hilum". Mycologia (Mycological Society of America) 57 (5): 822–825. doi:10.2307/3757020. JSTOR 3757020. 
2. ^ Márquez, Luis; Regina Redman, Russell Rodriguez, Marilyn J. Roossinck (2007). "A virus in a fungus in a plant: three-way symbiosis required for thermal tolerance". Science 315 (5811): 513. doi:10.1126/science.1136237. PMID 17255511. http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/reprint/sci;315/5811/513.pdf.