Multilocus, DNA-based phylogenetic analyses reveal three new species lineages in the Phellinus gabonensis–P. caribaeo-quercicola species complex, including P. amazonicus sp. nov.

Abstract

Species complexes in the poroid Hymenochaetaceae are well documented in the temperate areas. Potential species complexes are less known in tropical areas, however. In the last ten years, four phylogenetically and morphologically closely related species of Phellinus (Hymenochaetaceae) were described from various tropical/subtropical areas viz. P. caribaeo-quercicola, P. gabonensis, P. ellipsoideus, and P. castanopsidis. They are characterized by cushion-shaped basidiomata, ventricose, commonly hamate hymenial setae, and broadly ellipsoid, thick-walled, pale yellowish basidiospores. Pursuing the studies of this complex, a phylogenetic approach based on DNA sequence data from the nuc rDNA regions ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 (ITS) and partial 28S (including the domains D1, D2, D3) and on part of the translation elongation factor 1-α (tef1, region between exons 4 and 8) revealed three new lineages or phylogenetic species. Two of these phylogenetic species are composed of exclusively on Neotropical specimens. One of them, described below as Phellinus amazonicus sp. nov., is represented by multiple collections originating from Neotropical, lowland, dense, moist forest at the western edge of the Amazon Basin in Ecuador, the Guiana Shield in French Guiana and (more likely) Trinidad. The second Neotropical phylogenetic species is represented in our phylogenetic analyses by a single collection from northeastern Argentina. It is also potentially known from two herbarium specimens originating from southern Brazil, for which no sequence data is available. It is left for now as Phellinus sp. 1, waiting to gather more specimens and DNA sequences data. The third new phylogenetic species is known by a single collection (pure culture) of uncertain origin. It is thought to represent Phellinus setulosus, a Southeast Asian taxa. From an evolutionary perspective, tree species occurring in the Neotropics (P. amazonicus, P. caribaeo-quercicola, and Phellinus sp. 1) have a closely related genetic background and form a well supported Neotropical lineage.

• biogeography
• Hymenochaetaceae
• Phellinus
• polypores
• North America

Acknowledgments

Marisa de Campos Santana acknowledges the financial support received from CAPES (process 8296/11-1) that enabled a yearlong research stay at MUCL, Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium and CNPq (Brazil). Cony Decock gratefully acknowledges the financial support received from the Belgian State–Belgian Federal Science Policy through the BCCM research program, the FNRS/FRFC (convention FRFC 2.4544.10), the CIUF/CUD through a PIC program “reinforcement of the fungal expertise in Ecuador via case studies of fungal plants interactions in selected ecosystems and the development of biotechnology-oriented fungal resource centers”, and the Nouragues Travel Grant “MYcorrhizal COmmon network–of Trees on INselbergs” ( program 2013) that allowed fungal diversity studies in Ecuador and French Guiana. Cony Decock also thanks Dr Anne Corval and Dr Annaïg Le Guen, respectively previous and present director of the CNRS Guyane, for granting authorization and facilities for field research at the CNRS Nouragues “Inselberg” and “Pararé” forest plots, and the CNRS staff members in Cayenne and at both camps, viz. Mrs Dorothée Deslignes and Laeticia Proux, and Mr Philippe Gaucher, Patrick Châtelet, Gilles Peroz, and Wemo Betian and Stéphane Ricatte. The authors also thank warmly Stéphanie Huret for her help with the sequencing program.

Notes

3 Authorships of scientific names are reported (Table I).