Morphology, Multilocus Phylogeny, and Toxin Analysis Reveal Amanita albolimbata, the First Lethal Amanita Species From Benin, West Africa

Abstract

Many species of Amanita sect. Phalloideae (Fr.) Quél. cause death of people after consumption around the world. Amanita albolimbata, a new species of A. sect. Phalloideae from Benin, is described here. The taxon represents the first lethal species of A. sect. Phalloideae known from Benin. Morphology and molecular phylogenetic analyses based on five genes (ITS, nrLSU, rpb2, tef1-α, and β-tubulin) revealed that A. albolimbata is a distinct species. The species is characterized by its smooth, white pileus sometimes covered by a patchy volval remnant, a bulbous stipe with a white limbate volva, broadly ellipsoid to ellipsoid, amyloid basidiospores, and abundant inflated cells in the volva. Screening for the most notorious toxins by liquid chromatography–high-resolution mass spectrometry revealed the presence of α-amanitin, β-amanitin, and phallacidin in A. albolimbata.

Amanita Section Phalloideae Species in the Mediterranean Basin: Destroying Angels Reviewed

“…virosa var. levipes are significantly related to A. subpallidorosea Hai J. Li, but their phylogenetic relation with A. ocreata Peck, found in the multigenic analysis performed by Codjia et al [34] could not be recovered with the present analysis. All Mediterranean species in sect.…”

“…All Mediterranean species in sect. Phalloideae are nested within a 'Northern Hemisphere lineage', significantly distinct from the remaining taxa, which in previous works [34][35][36][37], constitute three different monophyletic lineages. ITS rDNA sequences of A. strobiliformis are 92% similar to those of A. sabulicola S. Morini et al, which is by now the closest relative [65].…”

“…The Bayesian inference of phylogeny based on ITS and LSU data (Figure 1) is consistent with previously published organization of Amanita sect. Phalloideae [31,[33][34][35][36][37]64], although the limited signal provided by the ribosomal regions alone does not resolve most supraspecific nodes supported by the analyses, including protein-coding genes. The Mediterranean 'destroying angels' include at least seven different species.…”

“…Recent phylogenetic accounts on sect. Phalloideae [31][32][33][34][35][36][37] have focused primarily on American, Asian, and African species, with very few European data included. According to Neville & Poumarat [38], the only species of sect.…”

Taxonomic Novelties and New Records of Amanita Subgenus Amanitina from Thailand

“…Our multi-locus phylogenetic analysis also presented the same result. These three subclades may be treated as subsections or new sections [ 2 , 4 , 26 , 54 ] in the future.…”