Open AccessMultigene phylogenetic analyses to establish new Valsaria species and taxonomic significance of spore ornamentation
Author(s) -
Dhandevi Pem,
Kevin D. Hyde,
Mingkwan Doilom,
Erio Camporesi,
Sinang Hongsanan,
Sillma Rampadarath,
Vishwakalyan Bhoyroo,
Rajesh Jeewon
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0217982
Subject(s) - biology , phylogenetic tree , taxon , phylogenetics , maximum parsimony , evolutionary biology , genus , botany , taxonomy (biology) , clade , zoology , gene , genetics
During our studies on fungal diversity from plant substrates, a new species of Valsaria was isolated from dead branches of Ostrya carpinifolia . The taxon is morphologically similar to other taxa in Valsariaceae and is characterized by pseudostromata, apically free pseudoparaphyses, bitunicate asci, and dark brown, 2-celled ascospores. However, it differs from extant species in number of guttules and ornamentation of spore. It is introduced herein as Valsaria ostryae sp. nov. within the family Valsariaceae. Multigene phylogenies based on combined LSU, ITS and RPB2 DNA sequence data generated from maximum likelihood, maximum parsimony and MrBayes analyses indicate that V . ostryae is basal to V . lopadostomoides and V . rudis and its establishment as a new species is strongly supported. No discordance was found between our morphological and phylogenetic species boundaries as postulated by other researchers and our molecular data strongly supports ornamentation of spore as useful for species delineation. Valsaria species do not appear to be host specific. Full morphological details are provided herein and phylogenetic relationships of Valsaria species are also discussed in light with host association.