Studies in Mycology

During 25 surveys of global Phytophthora diversity, conducted between 1998 and 2020, 43 new species were detected in natural ecosystems and, occasionally, in nurseries and outplantings in Europe, Southeast and East Asia and the Americas. Based on a multigene phylogeny of nine nuclear and four mitochondrial gene regions they were assigned to five of the six known subclades, 2a-c, e and f, of Phytophthora major Clade 2 and the new subclade 2g. The evolutionary history of the Clade appears to have involved the pre-Gondwanan divergence of three extant subclades, 2c, 2e and 2f, all having disjunct natural distributions on separate continents and comprising species with a soilborne and aquatic lifestyle and, in addition, a few partially aerial species in Clade 2c; and the post-Gondwanan evolution of subclades 2a and 2g in Southeast/East Asia and 2b in South America, respectively, from their common ancestor...

Based on seven- and three-gene datasets, we discuss four alternative approaches for a reclassification of Fomitopsidaceae (Polyporales , Basidiomycota) . After taking into account morphological diversity in the family, we argue in favour of distinguishing three genera only, viz . Anthoporia , Antrodia and Fomitopsis . Fomitopsis becomes a large genus with 128 accepted species, containing almost all former Fomitopsis spp. and most species formerly placed in Antrodia , Daedalea and Laccocephalum . Genera Buglossoporus , Cartilosoma , Daedalea , Melanoporia , Neolentiporus , alongside twenty others, are treated as synonyms of Fomitopsis ...

The phylogenetic position of several clitocyboid/pleurotoid/tricholomatoid genera previously considered incertae sedis is here resolved using an updated 6-gene dataset of Agaricales including newly sequenced lineages and more complete data from those already analyzed before. Results allowed to infer new phylogenetic relationships, and propose taxonomic novelties to accommodate them, including up to ten new families and a new suborder. Giacomia (for which a new species from China is here described) forms a monophyletic clade with Melanoleuca ( Melanoleucaceae ) nested inside suborder Pluteineae , together with the families Pluteaceae , Amanitaceae (including Leucocortinarius ), Limnoperdaceae and Volvariellaceae ...

The order Eurotiales is diverse and includes species that impact our daily lives in many ways. In the past, its taxonomy was difficult due to morphological similarities, which made accurate identification of species difficult. This situation improved and stabilised with recent taxonomic and nomenclatural revisions that modernised Aspergillus , Penicillium and Talaromyces . This was mainly due to the availability of curated accepted species lists and the publication of comprehensive DNA sequence reference datasets...

In this study, we investigated the morphological and genetic variability of selected species belonging to the genus Chloridium sensu lato , some also referred to as chloridium-like asexual morphs and other undescribed morphologically similar fungi. These species do not conform to the revised generic concept and thus necessitate a re-evaluation in terms of taxonomy and phylogeny. The family Chaetosphaeriaceae ( Chaetosphaeriales ) encompasses a wide range of asexual morphotypes, and among them, the simplest form is represented by Chloridium sect...

Claviceps ( Clavicipitaceae , Hypocreales ) was erected in 1853, although ergotism had been well-known for a much longer time. By 2000, about 70 taxa had been described in Claviceps , of which eight species and six varieties were based on Japanese type or authentic specimens. Most of these Japanese Claviceps taxa are based on lost specimens or have invalid names, which means many species practically exist only in the scientific literature. The ambiguous identities of these species have hindered taxonomic resolution of the genus Claviceps ...

<b/> Escovopsis is a symbiont of fungus-growing ant colonies. Unstandardised taxonomy prevented the evaluation of the morphological diversity of Escovopsis for more than a century. The aim of this study is to create a standardised taxonomic framework to assess the morphological and phylogenetic diversity of Escovopsis . Therefore, to set the foundation for Escovopsis taxonomy and allow interspecific comparisons within the genus, we redescribe the ex-type cultures of Escovopsis aspergilloides, E. clavata, E...

Xerocomoideae is an ecologically and economically important Boletaceae subfamily ( Boletales ) comprising 10 genera. Although many studies have focused on Xerocomoideae in China, the diversity, taxonomy and molecular phylogeny still remained incompletely understood. In the present study, taxonomic and phylogenetic studies on Chinese species of Xerocomoideae were carried out by morphological examinations and molecular phylogenetic analyses. Eight genera in Xerocomoideae, viz. Aureoboletus, Boletellus, Heimioporus, Hemileccinum, Hourangia, Phylloporus, Pulchroboletus, and Xerocomus were confirmed to be distributed in China; 97 species of the subfamily were accepted as being distributed in China; one ambiguous taxon was tentatively named Bol...

<b/>Mycoparasites in Basidiomycota comprise a diverse group of fungi, both morphologically and phylogenetically. They interact with their hosts through either fusion-interaction or colacosome-interaction. Colacosomes are subcellular structures formed by the mycoparasite at the host-parasite interface, which penetrate the parasite and host cell walls. Previously, these structures were detected in 19 fungal species, usually by means of transmission electron microscopy. Most colacosome-forming species have been assigned to Microbotryomycetes ( Pucciniomycotina , Basidiomycota ), a highly diverse class, comprising saprobic yeasts, mycoparasites, and phytoparasites...

Many members of the Oomycota genus Phytophthora cause economic and environmental impact diseases in nurseries, horticulture, forest, and natural ecosystems and many are of regulatory concern around the world. At present, there are 223 described species, including eight unculturable and three lost species. Twenty-eight species need to be redescribed or validated. A lectotype, epitype or neotype was selected for 20 species, and a redescription based on the morphological/molecular characters and phylogenetic placement is provided...

Fusarium species are important cereal pathogens that cause severe production losses to major cereal crops such as maize, rice, and wheat. However, the causal agents of Fusarium diseases on cereals have not been well documented because of the difficulty in species identification and the debates surrounding generic and species concepts. In this study, we used a citizen science initiative to investigate diseased cereal crops (maize, rice, wheat) from 250 locations, covering the major cereal-growing regions in China...

Fruiting bodies (sporocarps, sporophores or basidiomata) of mushroom-forming fungi ( Agaricomycetes ) are among the most complex structures produced by fungi. Unlike vegetative hyphae, fruiting bodies grow determinately and follow a genetically encoded developmental program that orchestrates their growth, tissue differentiation and sexual sporulation. In spite of more than a century of research, our understanding of the molecular details of fruiting body morphogenesis is still limited and a general synthesis on the genetics of this complex process is lacking...

Aspergillus section Candidi encompasses white- or yellow-sporulating species mostly isolated from indoor and cave environments, food, feed, clinical material, soil and dung. Their identification is non-trivial due to largely uniform morphology. This study aims to re-evaluate the species boundaries in the section Candidi and present an overview of all existing species along with information on their ecology. For the analyses, we assembled a set of 113 strains with diverse origin. For the molecular analyses, we used DNA sequences of three house-keeping genes ( benA , CaM and RPB2 ) and employed species delimitation methods based on a multispecies coalescent model...

The Aspergillus series Nigri contains biotechnologically and medically important species. They can produce hazardous mycotoxins, which is relevant due to the frequent occurrence of these species on foodstuffs and in the indoor environment. The taxonomy of the series has undergone numerous rearrangements, and currently, there are 14 species accepted in the series, most of which are considered cryptic. Species-level identifications are, however, problematic or impossible for many isolates even when using DNA sequencing or MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry, indicating a possible problem in the definition of species limits or the presence of undescribed species diversity...

Aspergillus series Versicolores members occur in a wide range of environments and substrates such as indoor environments, food, clinical materials, soil, caves, marine or hypersaline ecosystems. The taxonomy of the series has undergone numerous re-arrangements including a drastic reduction in the number of species and subsequent recovery to 17 species in the last decade. The identification to species level is however problematic or impossible in some isolates even using DNA sequencing or MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry indicating a problem in the definition of species boundaries...

Chloridium is a little-studied group of soil- and wood-inhabiting dematiaceous hyphomycetes that share a rare mode of phialidic conidiogenesis on multiple loci. The genus has historically been divided into three morphological sections, i.e. Chloridium , Gongromeriza , and Psilobotrys . Sexual morphs have been placed in the widely perceived genus Chaetosphaeria , but unlike their asexual counterparts, they show little or no morphological variation. Recent molecular studies have expanded the generic concept to include species defined by a new set of morphological characters, such as the collar-like hyphae, setae, discrete phialides, and penicillately branched conidiophores...

Fungi are incredibly diverse, but they are unexplored, especially in the subalpine and alpine zone. Mortierellaceae are certainly one of the most abundant, species-rich, and widely distributed cultivable soil fungal families in terrestrial habitats, including subalpine and alpine zones. The phylogeny of Mortierellaceae was recently resolved based on current state of the art molecular techniques, and the paraphyletic genus Mortierella sensu lato ( s.l. ) was divided into 13 monophyletic genera. Our extensive sampling campaigns in the Austrian Alps resulted in 139 different Mortierellaceae pure culture isolates representing 13 new species...

In a recently published classification scheme for Leotiomycetes , the new family Hyphodiscaceae was erected; unfortunately, this study was rife with phylogenetic misinterpretations and hampered by a poor understanding of this group of fungi. This manifested in the form of an undiagnostic familial description, an erroneous familial circumscription, and the redescription of the type species of an included genus as a new species in a different genus. The present work corrects these errors by incorporating new molecular data from this group into phylogenetic analyses and examining the morphological features of the included taxa...

Soil fungi play indispensable roles in all ecosystems including the recycling of organic matter and interactions with plants, both as symbionts and pathogens. Past observations and experimental manipulations indicate that projected global change effects, including the increase of CO2 concentration, temperature, change of precipitation and nitrogen (N) deposition, affect fungal species and communities in soils. Although the observed effects depend on the size and duration of change and reflect local conditions, increased N deposition seems to have the most profound effect on fungal communities...

Over 80 species of hypocrealean fungi are reported as pathogens of spiders and harvestmen. Among these fungi, the genus Gibellula is highly regarded as a specialised spider-killer that has never been reported to infect other arthropods. While more than 20 species of Gibellula are known, few attempts to identify the infected spiders have been made despite the fact that the host specificity can help identify the fungal species. Here, we morphologically describe and illustrate eight new species of Gibellula and three new records from Thailand of known species along with the multi-gene phylogeny that clearly showed the segregation among the proposed species...