Four Novel Species and Two New Records of Boletes from India

Abstract

Repeated macrofungal explorations, followed by thorough examination of species through morphology and molecular phylogeny, have made it clear that European and American names of wild mushrooms were inadvertently misapplied quite often to Asian lookalikes by mycologists/taxonomists in the past. Therefore, in order to reveal this mushroom treasure, in recent years, taxonomical research on wild mushrooms has been intensified in Asian countries, including India, by undertaking a combined approach of morpho-taxonomy and multigene molecular phylogeny. Boletoid mushrooms (Boletaceae) are no exception. While working on boletoid mushrooms of the Indian Himalayas, authors recently came across six interesting species of boletoid mushrooms. In the present communication, four novel species, namely Leccinellum binderi, Cyanoboletus paurianus, Xerocomus uttarakhandae, and Xerocomellus himalayanus, are established based on morphology and molecular phylogenetic estimations. Moreover, Cyanoboletus macroporus and Xerocomus fraternus are also reported here for the first time in India.

Concordance of multigene genealogy along with morphological evidence unveils five novel species and two new records of boletoid mushrooms (fungi) from India

“…bothii is found in temperate mixed forests 10 . Further, L. binderi K. Das, A. Ghosh & Vizzini, another recently discovered species from the same locality easily falls apart from L. bothii by differently looking pileus (hemispherical to convex to applanate pileus with subtomentose to cracked pileus surface, yellowish brown to greyish yellow in colour), differently featured stipe context (never turning greyish orange near base) and distinctively larger basidiospores (13.8–18.22–22 × 5.4–5.96–7 µm) 5 . The European L. pseudoscabrum (Kallenb.)…”

“…The ITS, LSU, rpb2 and tef 1-α sequences of the newly generated Leccinellum bothii , L. sinoaurantiacum , Phylloporus himalayanus , P. smithii , Xerocomus rugosellus , Porphyrellus uttarakhandae and Retiboletus pseudoater and their close relatives were retrieved from nBLAST search against GenBank ( https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genbank ) and relevant published phylogenies 5 , 16 , 18 , 22 – 24 , 36 – 38 . Four raw datasets (ITS, LSU, rpb2 and tef 1-α) were created separately.…”

“…Additionally, L. alborufescens and L. fujianense have distinctively smaller basidiospores and are known to occur in tropical and subtropical forests, respectively, whereas L. bothii is found in temperate mixed forests 10 . Further, L. binderi K. Das, A. Ghosh & Vizzini, another recently discovered species from the same locality easily falls apart from L. bothii by differently looking pileus (hemispherical to convex to applanate pileus with subtomentose to cracked pileus surface, yellowish brown to greyish yellow in colour), differently featured stipe context (never turning greyish orange near base) and distinctively larger basidiospores (13.8-18.22-22 × 5.4-5.96-7 µm) 5 stipe that is entirely covered with brownish black dot-like squamules arranged in longitudinal rows, cutis pattern of stipitipellis and the occurrence under Carpinus betulus or Corylus avellana 9,11,12 .…”

“…Three protein-coding genes, namely rpb1 (RNA polymerase II largest subunit), rpb2 (RNA polymerase II second largest subunit), and tef 1-α (translation elongation factor 1α), played the key role to give the proper phylogenetic framework for Boletaceae 2 . These revolutionary changes lead to the discovery of more than 100 genera and ca 1200 species 5 from the world. Moreover, this mode of investigation redefined seven major clades within this family, namely, subfamilies Austroboletoideae, Boletoideae, Chalciporoideae, Leccinoideae, Xerocomoideae, Zangioideae, and Pulveroboletus group 2 .…”

“…Boletaceae is no exception of it. Presently, 85 species belonging to 24 genera are known from Indian Himalaya 5 – 8 . Recently, in the month of August (2023), the authors have taken macrofungal exploration to three districts (Rudraprayag, Chamoli and Bageshwar) of the state Uttarakhand in western Himalaya and East Khasi Hills of Meghalaya in Northeast India.…”