Systematics of the Pezizomycetes--the operculate discomycetes

Abstract

The Pezizomycetes (order Pezizales) is an early diverging lineage within the Pezizomycotina. A shared derived character, the operculate ascus, supports the Pezizales as monophyletic, although functional opercula have been lost in certain taxa. Phylogenetic relationships within Pezizales were studied using parsimony and Bayesian analyses of partial SSU and LSU rDNA sequences from 100 taxa representing 82 genera and 13 of the 15 families currently recognized. Three primary lineages are identified that more or less correspond to the A, B and C lineages resolved in previous analyses using SSU rDNA: (A) Ascobolaceae and Pezizaceae; (B) Discinaceae-Morchellaceae and Helvellaceae-Tuberaceae; (C) Ascodesmidaceae, Glaziellaceae, Pyronemataceae, Sarcoscyphaceae and Sarcosomataceae. In contrast the monotypic Rhizinaceae and Caloscyphaceae are resolved as two independent lineages. Bayesian analyses support a relationship among Rhizina and two species of Psilopezia (Pyronemataceae). Only lineage C is highly supported. The B and C lineages form a strongly supported monophyletic group. None of these lineages corresponds to earlier proposed suborders. The A and B lineages are supported by certain morphological features (e.g. ascus bluing reaction in iodine, cytology of spores and paraphyses, septal pore structures and excipulum structure); these characters have been subject to homoplasy. Lineage C is the largest and most heterogeneous, and no unifying morphological features support its recognition. The Pyronemataceae, in which almost half of the species in the order are found, is not monophyletic because the Ascodesmidaceae and Glaziellaceae are nested within it. The relationships among all families in the C lineage remain uncertain. The origin of various forms of ascomata, including hypogeous forms (truffles and truffle-like), epigeous cleistothecia, simple reduced apothecia and highly elaborate, stipitate forms (helvelloid and morchelloid), are discussed.

Fungi evolved right on track

“…However perithecial and cleistothecial (Corner 1929;Dö bbeler 1979Dö bbeler , 1980Dö bbeler , 1997Hansen et al 2005). Perithecial ascomata in otherwise apothecial lineages evolve through neotenic retention of initially closed ascomata, especially in groups with cleistohymenial ascoma ontogeny (apothecia starting out closed and opening by a widening pore), which includes a large part of the Pezizomycetes (Corner 1929(Corner , 1931(Corner , 1935van Brummelen 1967;Pfister 1978Pfister , 1993Grube et al 2004;Hansen and Pfister 2006). The ontogeny of the apothecial pezizomycete Byssonectria (Pfister 1993) and the perithecial Octosporella jungermanniana (Corner 1929) show stages similar to those depicted for the Paleopyrenomycites fossil: ascogonial filaments (Pfister 1993: FIGS.…”

<i>Calongea</i>, a new genus of truffles in the Pezizaceae (Pezizales)

“…Previous studies based on LSU rDNA have not resolved the higher order relationships among the major clades within the Pezizaceae (Hansen & Pfister, 2006;Laessøe & Hansen, 2007). Our results demonstrate a similar lack of resolution with this locus.…”

“…Two independent maximum likelihood analyses based on a general-time-reversible 6-parameter model of evolution were run using the software program GARLI and included 100 bootstrap replications (Zwickl, 2006). The truffle species Genea harknessii from within the Pyronemataceae was chosen as an outgroup based on previous studies focused on the systematics of the Pezizo mycetes (Hansen & Pfister, 2006). Sequences for Ca longea prieguensis produced in this study were depo sited in GenBank under accession numbers FJ228462 and FJ228463.…”

Primer registro de la familia Morchellaceae (Ascomycota: Pezizales) para Colombia

“…(1885), Morchella Dill. ex Pers., (1794) (O'Donnell et al 2011) y se le reconoce su estado monofiletico (O'Donnell et al 1997, Hansen & Pfister 2006, Pildain et al 2014). …”