Morphological and molecular characterization of the Armillaria cepistipes – A. gallica complex in the Czech Republic and Slovakia

Abstract

Armillaria cepistipes and A. gallica (Basidiomycota, Physalacriaceae) are morphologically similar species, and they are often nearly indistinguishable using DNAbased methods targeting the ITS region of ribosomal DNA. The aim of this study was to examine morphological and ecological features of A. cepistipes and A. gallica, and to test other DNA-based methods to distinguish the two species. Our results revealed discriminative macro-and micromorphological features between these two species, especially the presence of a distinct central pileus ocella, the shape of the annulus, the character of the velar stipe remnants and the length of the terminal cells of the pileus scales. Ecologically, A. gallica generally prefers warmer areas in lowlands (oak and alluvial forests), while A.cepistipes is more common in hilly and lower montane beech forests in Central Europe. Nevertheless, despite differences in ecological preferences, certain locations between 300 and 500 m a.s.l. are known to sympatrically support both species. The sequences of the translation elongation factor 1-alpha showed high interspecific variability, and this gene is a more appropriate candidate for distinguishing A. gallica from A. cepistipes.

Evaluation of partial tef1, rpb2, and nLSU sequences for identification of isolates representing Armillaria calvescens and Armillaria gallica from northeastern North America

“…This provides further evidence of the utility of the tef1 gene in accurately characterizing Armillaria species, a claim supported by previous studies (Maphosa et al 2006;Hasegawa et al 2010;Antonin et al 2009;Tsykun et al 2011). While not the focus of this study, this is important for distinguishing between A. solidipes and A. gemina, which produce fruiting bodies that cannot be distinguished morphologically (B erub e & Dessureault 1989), and have a very close genetic relationship to one another (Anderson & Stasovski 1992;Piercey-Normore et al 1998;Kim et al 2006).…”

“…While A. gallica was included in this study, A. calvescens was not. More recently, partial tef1 sequences were used by Hasegawa et al (2010) to successfully distinguish eight species of Armillaria from Japan, and by researchers in Eastern Europe to discriminate isolates in the A. gallica complex (Antonin et al 2009;Tsykun et al 2011). In addition to the tef1 gene, partial sequences from the RNA polymerase II (rpb2) gene have proven to be useful in discriminating closely-related species of basidiomycete fungi (Matheny et al 2007).…”

The phylogenetic position of an Armillaria species from Amami-Oshima, a subtropical island of Japan, based on elongation factor and ITS sequences

“…(Maphosa et al 2006;Antonín et al 2009). More recently, Hasegawa et al (2010) showed that the EF-1a gene was the most suitable region for identifying eight species of Japanese Armillaria.…”

Species recognition and phylogenetic relationships of European Porodaedalea (Basidiomycota, Hymenochaetales)

“…(White et al 1990;Kauserud and Schumacher 2001). The DNA was PCR-amplified as in previous studies (Antonín et al 2009;Tomšovský et al 2006) using a Mastercycler® ep thermocycler (Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany). In cases when amplification of the ITS and tefa regions was difficult, the primer pairs ITS1F/ITS4B and EF-526F/EF-1567R, respectively, were used in nested PCR (for primer sequences, see Gardes and Bruns 1993;O'Donnell et al 1998).…”