Molecular insights into fungal diversity reveal three novel species of Leucocoprinus from southern Punjab, Pakistan

ABSTRACT

Three novel species of the genus Leucocoprinus, named Lc. cinnamomeodiscus, Lc. dahranwalanus, and Lc. iqbalii, are described from unexplored regions of southern Punjab, Pakistan, based on comprehensive analyses of morphoanatomical characteristics and molecular phylogenetic data. We provide illustrations of freshly collected basidiomata and detailed line drawings highlighting key anatomical features. The molecular phylogenetic analyses, which are based on the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region and combined ITS-28S sequences, consistently position these newly described species within the genus Leucocoprinus. Additionally, this study also introduces new taxonomic combinations for previously reported Leucoagaricus species.

KEYWORDS:

• Bahawalnagar
• khanewal
• litter fungi
• new combinations
• phylogeny
• taxonomic diversity
• 67 new taxa

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank Dr. Genevieve Gates (University of Tasmania, Tasmania, Australia) for the linguistic review of the manuscript and Dr. Scott A. Redhead (Canadian National Mycological Herbarium, Agriculture and Agri-Food, Biological Collections Division, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) for his suggestions for resolving taxonomic problems related to new combinations, which helped us to improve the manuscript. We also thank Dr. Konstanze Bensch (MycoBank curator at Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute, the Netherlands) for her help in correcting the names of taxa. M.A. thanks Ms. Aiman Izhar (Ph.D. scholar at the Institute of Botany, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan) for her help in suggesting taxon names and Mr. Ali Hassan and Mr. Ali Hamza for their help at the sampling sites. We also thank all the anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions for improving the paper.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

The data sets generated or analyzed during the current study are available in GenBank, MycoBank, and TreeBASE repositories. Moreover, the data sets generated during the current study are also available upon request.

SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/00275514.2024.2351769

Additional information

Funding

The authors declare that the sequencing of the specimens for this study was supported by Dr. Mubashar Raza, as collaborator, besides which no other funds, grants, or other support were received during the preparation of the manuscript.