Molecular and Phenotypic Descriptions of Cystodermella cinnabarina from Western Himalaya: A New Genus for Pakistan

Abstract

Cystodermella cinnabarina is reported here for the first time from the moist temperate forests of western Himalaya and is the first collection of a Cystodermella from Pakistan. This species is redescribed here using morphological and molecular data. The phylogenetic analysis which is based on internal transcribed spacers (ITS) showed that the Pakistani collection clustered distinctly with similar European sequences in the Cystodermella clade. The Italian and north European sequences of this species clustered in two separate subclades and the Pakistani sequences closely matched the Italian sequences. It is evident that the Pakistani population has a very close evolutionary affinity with the Italian individuals rather than those from northern Europe. The species is distributed in Europe, in North America, and now in the western Himalaya of Asia.

<i>Hygrophorus annulatus</i>, a new edible member of <i>H. olivaceoalbus</i>-complex from southwestern China

“…Numerous internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequences from Europe and North America in public databases were labeled as " H. olivaceoalbus ", but in phylogenetic trees, some of them appeared in different lineages, implying that those samples of " H. olivaceoalbus " represent a species complex, and this kind of morphological plasticity is prevalent in this genus ( Lodge et al, 2014 ; Razaq et al, 2014 ; Moreau et al, 2018 ; Naseer et al, 2019 ). Although " H. olivaceoalbus " was reported from China ( Yuan & Sun, 2007 ; Chen & Li, 2013 ), no Asian ITS sequence of the H. olivaceoalbus -complex has been deposited in public databases (GenBank [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genbank/] and UNITE [https://unite.ut.ee/]; Accessed on 10 June 2020) or included in publications until now.…”