Twelve New Species Reveal Cryptic Diversification in Foliicolous Lichens of Strigula s.lat. (Strigulales, Ascomycota)

Abstract

We employed a molecular phylogenetic approach using five markers (ITS, nuSSU, nuLSU, TEF1-α, and RPB2) to assess potential cryptic speciation in foliicolous members of Strigula s.lat. (Strigulaceae), including the recently segregated genera Phylloporis, Puiggariella, Raciborskiella, Racoplaca, and Serusiauxiella, from tropical areas in Asia, with selected materials from the Neotropics as reference. On the basis of combined molecular and phenotypic datasets, two new species of Racoplaca and 10 new species of Strigula s.str. are described: Racoplaca macrospora sp. nov., R. maculatoides sp. nov., Strigula guangdongensis sp. nov., S. intermedia sp. nov., S. laevis sp. nov., S. microcarpa sp. nov., S. pseudoantillarum sp. nov., S. pseudosubtilissima sp. nov., S. pycnoradians sp. nov., S. sinoconcreta sp. nov., S. stenoloba sp. nov., and S. subtilissimoides sp. nov. In addition, we propose the new combination Phylloporis palmae comb. nov. (≡ =Manaustrum palmae) and we validate the earlier combination Racoplaca melanobapha comb. nov. (≡ Verrucaria melanobapha; Strigula melanobapha). Our data clearly indicate a considerable degree of cryptic diversification in foliicolous representatives of Strigula s.lat., particularly in the presumably widespread taxa Strigula antillarum, S. concreta, S. nitidula, and S. smaragdula. Given that these phylogenetic revisions are thus far limited to few regions, we predict that our findings only represent the proverbial tip of the iceberg in this group of lichenized fungi.

Morphological and Phylogenetic Characterizations Reveal Five New Species of Astrothelium (Trypetheliales, Ascomycota) from China

“…For constructing the phylogenetic tree, the genus Bathelium , belonging to the same family Trypetheliaceae within Astrothelium , was chosen as outgroup [ 10 ]. Sequences for each marker were firstly aligned independently with MAFFT v.7 (Katoh and Standley, Osaka, Japan) [ 31 ], and the combinability was tested as described previously [ 32 ]. Only when no significant conflict was detected, would the three markers ITS, LSU, and RPB1 be combined.…”

“…Only when no significant conflict was detected, would the three markers ITS, LSU, and RPB1 be combined. Bayesian analyses were performed by using MrBayes v.3.2.7 (Ronquist et al, Stockholm, Sweden), as detailed in Jiang et al [ 32 ]. Every 100th generation was sampled as a tree with 5,000,000 generations running.…”

Múltiples registros nuevos de hongos liquenizados para Aguascalientes, con la evaluación del estado de conservación de dos especies endémicas de México

“…De hecho, el género Strigula s.l. es un ejemplo de especies crípticas presentes en el trópico asiático y el neotrópico (Jiang et al 2022). Aún con la posibilidad de que se trate de especies distintas, los registros de Phaeophyscia sonorae (incluyendo el registro de Corea del Sur) pueden considerarse dentro de la categoría Vulnerable (VU) a nivel global.…”

Fouragea gyrophorica sp. nov. from China, with morphological and phylogenetic evidence

“…The phylogenetic tree was visualized and edited by iTOl V.6.0 (Letunic & Bork 2021). The bootstrap support value above 70% and posterior probabilities above 95% were considered threshold values (Jiang et al 2021).…”