Cryptic Diversity in Cladosporium cladosporioides Resulting from Sequence-Based Species Delimitation Analyses

Abstract

Cladosporium cladosporioides is an extremely widespread fungus involved in associations ranging from mutualistic to pathogenic and is the most frequently represented Cladosporium species in sequence databases, such as Genbank. The taxonomy of Cladosporium species, currently based on the integration of molecular data with morphological and cultural characters, is in frequent need of revision. Hence, the recently developed species delimitation methods can be helpful to explore cryptic diversity in this genus. Considering a previous study that reported several hypothetical species within C. cladosporioides, we tested four methods of species delimitation using the combined DNA barcodes internal transcribed spacers, translation elongation factor 1-α and actin 1. The analyses involved 105 isolates, revealing that currently available sequences of C. cladosporioides in GenBank actually represent more than one species. Moreover, we found that eight isolates from this set should be ascribed to Cladosporium anthropophilum. Our results revealed a certain degree of discordance among species delimitation methods, which can be efficiently treated using conservative approaches in order to minimize the risk of considering false positives.

MinION Sequencing of Fungi in Sub-Saharan African Air and a Novel LAMP Assay for Rapid Detection of the Tropical Phytopathogenic Genus Lasiodiplodia

“…These results are consistent with numerous other studies that have confirmed the widespread ubiquitous distribution of this fungal genus throughout many geographic regions of the world [ 22 ]. Cladosporium has a cosmopolitan distribution and represents the most common fungi present in air, also having the potential to act as important animal and plant pathogen [ 33 ]. Airborne spores of Cladosporium have previously been studied in other African countries including Nigeria and South Africa, due to their economic and medical importance as pathogens in this geographic region of humans and crops [ 34 , 35 ].…”

Species delimitation of tea plants (Camellia sect. Thea) based on super-barcodes

“…In such cases, mPTP may be more accurate as it can account for divergent intraspecific variation among species [ 66 , 78 ]. However, the estimations yielded by mPTP tend to be too conservative in empirical studies [ 90 ]. As exemplified for Clades II to V, mPTP collapsed many morphologically distinct taxa, some of which are uncontroversial, into one.…”

Biological and molecular characterization of Cladosporium sp. and Acremonium zeylanicum as biocontrol agents of Aphis fabae in a tri‐trophic system

“…However, there is no report on the natural incidence of C. cladosporioides on the citrus soft scale, suggesting a novel host for this fungus. Molecular analysis of other DNA sequences such as translation elongation factor 1‐α and actin 1 has been recommended for species delimitation within the Cladosporium genus (Becchimanzi et al, 2021). Accordingly, the fungal isolate used in the present study was identified up to the genus level.…”