Has taxonomic vandalism gone too far? A case study, the rise of the pay-to-publish model and the pitfalls of Morchella systematics

Abstract

The genus Morchella has gone through turbulent taxonomic treatments. Although significant progress in Morchella systematics has been achieved in the past decade, several problems remain unresolved and taxonomy in the genus is still in flux. In late 2019, a paper published in the open-access journal Scientific Reports raised serious concerns about the taxonomic stability of the genus, but also about the future of academic publishing. The paper, entitled "High diversity of Morchella and a novel lineage of the esculenta clade from the north Qinling Mountains revealed by GCPSR-based study" by Phanpadith and colleagues, suffered from gross methodological errors, included false results and artifactual phylogenies, had misapplied citations throughout, and proposed a new species name invalidly. Although the paper was eventually retracted by Scientific Reports in 2021, the fact that such an overtly flawed and scientifically unsound paper was published in a high-ranked Q1 journal raises alarming questions about quality controls and safekeeping procedures in scholarly publishing. Using this paper as a case study, we provide a critical review on the pitfalls of Morchella systematics followed by a series of recommendations for the delimitation of species, description of taxa, and ultimately for a sustainable taxonomy in Morchella. Problems and loopholes in the academic publishing system are also identified and discussed, and additional quality controls in the pre-and post-publication stages are proposed.

Ten decadal advances in fungal biology leading towards human well-being

“…True morels ( Morchella spp., Pezizales, Ascomycota) are highly sought after and prized edible mushrooms, renowned for their great economic and scientific value (Du and Yang 2021 ; Loizides et al 2022 ). Wild morels, mostly distributed in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere, have been reported to have a variety of ecological types, including saprotrophic, pyrophilic, and ectomycorrhizal (Pilz et al 2004 ; Tan et al 2019 ; Hussain and Sher 2021 ).…”

“…In light of morels subtle morphological features and high phenotypic plasticity, they are difficult to distinguish, and morphological species recognition of morels is questionable (Du and Yang 2021 ; Loizides et al 2022 ). Since 2010, genealogical concordance phylogenetic species recognition (GCPSR) based on multi-locus sequences (ITS, TEF , RPB 1 and RPB 2) has become the most effective method for species identification within Morchella (O’Donnell et al 2011 ; Du et al 2012 ; Kuo et al 2012 ).…”

“…Only the cultivation of these morels is not carried out on a large scale. Morchella eximia corresponds to phylogenetic species Mel-7, although whether M. eximia and M. septimelata are conspecific has not yet been conclusively determined (Loizides et al 2022). In China, M. eximia has a common name "Qimei Yangdujun".…”

Organization and Unconventional Integration of the Mating-Type Loci in Morchella Species

“…Three evolutionary clades were designated, including the basal Rufobrunnea clade (blushing morels), the Esculenta clade (yellow morels), and the Elata clade (black morels), while the phylospecies that had not been described were informally assigned the prefix codes “ Mes ” (for the Esculenta clade) and “ Mel ” (for the Elata clade), followed by a unique Arabic number [ 11 ]. To date, over 80 species-level lineages in the genus Morchella have been recognized worldwide, although the approaches focus more on molecular phylogenetics than morphology to identify cryptic species [ 13 ].…”

Contribución al conocimiento del género Morchella Dill ex Pers.: Fr. en la provincia de Albacete y áreas próximas

“…Los ascocarpos de las especies del género Morchella presentan una morfología única dentro del reino de los hongos, por lo que es necesario utilizar algunos términos para definir sus partes (Clowez y Moreau, 2020; Loizides et al, 2022).…”