Introducing the Consolidated Species Concept to resolve species in the <I>Teratosphaeriaceae</I>

Abstract

The Teratosphaeriaceae represents a recently established family that includes numerous saprobic, extremophilic, human opportunistic, and plant pathogenic fungi. Partial DNA sequence data of the 28S rRNA and RPB2 genes strongly support a separation of the Mycosphaerellaceae from the Teratosphaeriaceae, and also provide support for the Extremaceae and Neodevriesiaceae, two novel families including many extremophilic fungi that occur on a diversity of substrates. In addition, a multi-locus DNA sequence dataset was generated (ITS, LSU, Btub, Act, RPB2, EF-1α and Cal) to distinguish taxa in Mycosphaerella and Teratosphaeria associated with leaf disease of Eucalyptus, leading to the introduction of 23 novel genera, five species and 48 new combinations. Species are distinguished based on a polyphasic approach, combining morphological, ecological and phylogenetic species concepts, named here as the Consolidated Species Concept (CSC). From the DNA sequence data generated, we show that each one of the five coding genes tested, reliably identify most of the species present in this dataset (except species of Pseudocercospora). The ITS gene serves as a primary barcode locus as it is easily generated and has the most extensive dataset available, while either Btub, EF-1α or RPB2 provide a useful secondary barcode locus.

The rise of Ramularia from the Mycosphaerella labyrinth

“…Despite its importance as a plant pathogen, no cultures of this species are available in public culture collections. A recent study by Berbegal et al (2013) generated two ITS sequences (GenBank GQ465767 & GQ465768) of M. nawae that, when compared with other dothideomyceteous ITS sequences in NCBI's GenBank, places the species near or in Phaeophleospora within the Mycosphaerellaceae ( Quaedvlieg et al 2014). This link is considered doubtful, awaiting further collections of fresh material.…”

“…lat., the present study could only confirm six connections in Ramularia, and one new combination was proposed to accommodate R. phacae-frigidae. Additional collections of other names in Mycosphaerella may reveal more species that are true members of Ramularia, but presently the majority appears to belong to other genera ( Quaedvlieg et al 2014). In much of the plant pathology literature the name Mycosphaerella has been applied in a broad morphological and non-phylogenetic sense.…”

“…This is known as the Genealogical Concordance Phylogenetic Species Recognition (GCPSR) principle and is an adaptation of the Phylogenetic Species Concept (PSC) (Taylor et al 2000). With the addition of ecological and morphological data to support the multiple gene phylogenies in a polyphasic approach, mycologists have been increasingly relying on the Consolidated Species Concept (CSC) for fungal species delimitation (Quaedvlieg et al 2014).…”

Epitypification of Tilletia ehrhartae, a smut fungus with potential for nature conservation, biosecurity and biocontrol

“…The species characterization follows the Consolidated Species Concept (Quaedvlieg et al 2014). Additionally, this study provides the first molecular characterization of Californian material.…”

“…Thus, the combination of morphological, ecological and molecular characters are valuable for correct species identification. This polyphasic approach has often been used to differentiate fungal species including smuts Bauer et al 2008;Piątek et al 2012Piątek et al , 2013Savchenko et al 2013Savchenko et al , 2014Vasighzadeh et al 2014), and it was recently named the Consolidated Species Concept (Quaedvlieg et al 2014). Strictly defined species, with reference sequences deposited in public repositories (such as NCBI's GenBank), are essential for progress in plant pathology.…”