Phylogenetic study documents different speciation mechanisms within the Russula globispora lineage in boreal and arctic environments of the Northern Hemisphere

Abstract

The Russula globispora lineage is a morphologically and phylogenetically well-defined group of ectomycorrhizal fungi occurring in various climatic areas. In this study we performed a multi-locus phylogenetic study based on collections from boreal, alpine and arctic habitats of Europe and Western North America, subalpine collections from the southeast Himalayas and collections from subtropical coniferous forests of Pakistan. European and North American collections are nearly identical and probably represent a single species named R. dryadicola distributed from the Alps to the Rocky Mountains. Collections from the southeast Himalayas belong to two distinct species: R. abbottabadensis sp. nov. from subtropical monodominant forests of Pinus roxburghii and R. tengii sp. nov. from subalpine mixed forests of Abies and Betula. The results suggest that speciation in this group is driven by a climate disjunction and adaptation rather than a host switch and geographical distance.

Taxonomic revision of Russula subsection Amoeninae from South Korea

“…Similar results have been reported for other species groups in the various ectomycorrhizal genera of Russulaceae, which are often endemic to specific geographical regions or a single continent (Cho et al 2018;De Crop et al 2018;Wang et al 2018;Lee et al 2019;Looney et al 2020). Their host plants may have acted as bridges for species dispersal and diversification (Looney et al 2018), and geographic distance and climate disjunctions may have caused species divergence (Caboň et al 2019;Lee et al 2019). The present study included recently obtained sequences of well-known species from different continents except Africa, which will provide useful information for understanding the diversity in this section.…”

Fungal Planet description sheets: 951–1041

“…All Asian species share features typical for the R. globispora lineage: brownish yellow spots on basidiomata, red and soon discolouring pilei and large spores with prominent spines. Russula dryadicola, R. globispora and R. tengii differ in isolated spines of spore ornamentation that do not form chains (Caboň et al 2019). Russula heilongjiangensis has similar spore ornamentation but has narrower hymenial cystidia on lamellae sides (Li et al 2018).…”

Description of the Fifth New Species of Russula subsect. Maculatinae from Pakistan Indicates Local Diversity Hotspot of Ectomycorrhizal Fungi in Southwestern Himalayas

“…Jackson and with minor presence of evergreen broad leaf Quercus species. To understand niche specialization of Pakistani members of Russula subsection Maculatinae, we retrieved data about ecology and geographical position of already published R. abbottabadensis Saba and Adamčík [8], R. mansehraensis Saba, Caboň and Adamčík [19], R. quercus-floribundae Kiran and Adamčík [20] and R. rubricolor Jabeen, Naseer and Khalid [21].…”

“…Implementation of molecular techniques and use of ITS rDNA sequence as a barcoding tool proved that Asia has EcM taxa endemic to the continent [6]. Systematic research on some Russula lineages suggests existence of multiple diversity pools in the area of southern Asia [7], but diversity of northern boreal part of Asia probably in major parts overlaps with Europe [8]. Evidence regarding the endemic EcM species to southeastern and southern Asia boosted efforts to describe the local diversity.…”

“…However, low number of total Russula species published so far from western Himalaya (including Indian and Chinese territories) and locations of Pakistani Maculatinae records in a relatively small area suggest that the current knowledge of Maculatinae distribution in the Himalayas is incomplete and largely dependent on human factor. Publications describing Maculatinae members from Pakistan were facilitated by efficient morphological delimitation of the group and available European phylogenies [8].…”