Phylogeny and taxonomy of Favolus (Basidiomycota)

ABSTRACT

Favolus is a natural genus that is closely related to Polyporus. A taxonomic study of Favolus was carried out based on morphological characteristics and phylogenetic analysis of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region (ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 = ITS) and 18S and 28S genes of the nuc rDNA, translation elongation factor 1-α gene (TEF1-α), the mt 16S rDNA gene (mt rrnS), β-tubulin gene (TBB1), and the RNA polymerase II largest subunit (RPB1) and second largest subunit (RPB2) genes. Fourteen specimens collected from subtropical to tropical regions in China were shown to be different from existing Favolus species. They are described and illustrated here as four new species, namely, Favolus niveus, F. septatus, F. pseudoemerici, and F. subtropicus.

KEYWORDS:

• Favolus
• morphology
• phylogeny
• Polyporus
• wood-rotting fungi

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors are grateful to Dr. Wen-Min Qin (Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China) and Dr. Fang Li (Sun Yat-Sen University, China) for kindly providing specimens. We would also like to express our thanks to Prof. Yu-Cheng Dai (Beijing Forestry University, China) for his help in field collections.

Additional information

Funding

The research was financed by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (project no. 31422001) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (project no. 2016ZCQ04).