Three new species of Russula subsect. Lactarioideae, Russula byssina, R. cremicolor and R. leucocarpa collected from Guizhou Province grown under coniferous forest are described and illustrated based on morphological observation and ITS phylogenetic analyses. A key to these new species and closely related taxa in subsect. Lactarioideae and subsect. Pallidosporinae is provided. Phylogenic topologies show that R. cremicolor has a close relationship with Brevipes-Delica clade; R. byssina and R. leucocarpa are members of two independent clades.
A new polypore, Skeletocutis subalbomarginata, is described based on morphological characteristics and phylogenetic analysis. It is characterized by perennial, effused-reflexed to pileate basidiocarps, small pores measuring 8-10 per mm, a dimitic hyphal system, encrusted generative hyphae by sharp-pointed crystals, orange brownish skeletal hyphae, narrowly allantoid basidiospores measuring 2.7-3.4×0.5-0.8μm. Phylogenetic analysis based on the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions and nuclear large subunit (nLSU) ribosomal RNA gene regions indicated that the new species nested within the Skeletocutis clade. In addition, Piloporia is treated as a synonym of Skeletocutis, and three new combinations, Skeletocutis albomarginata (Zipp. ex Lév.) Rui Du & Y.C. Dai, Skeletocutis indica (Ganesh & Ryvarden) Rui Du & Y.C. Dai and Skeletocutis sajanensis (Parmasto) Rui Du & Y.C. Dai, are proposed.
The lichenised class Lichinomycetes only includes Lichinales, which consists of three families, i.e. Gloeoheppiaceae, Lichinaceae and Peltulaceae. Results of taxonomic study on Chinese Lichinomycetes based on phenotypic characters were reported. A new species Digitothyrea subdivergens was described. Heppia solorinoides, Thyrea asahinae and Thyrea girardii were new to China. Comparison and discussion with their similar species were given. These are basic data for compiling Lichen Flora of China, and resource information for implementing ‘desert biocarpet engineering’.
The study on polypore diversity in South China has been carried out, 2 095 samples were collected in 72 nature reserves, forest parks, botanical gardens and forest farms from Guangdong Province, Guangxi Autonomous Region and Hainan Province during 2002-2019, and 500 species, belonging to 8 orders, 20 families, 145 genera, are identified according to the morphological and phylogenetic analyses. Polyporaceae and Hymenochaetaceae are dominant families with 173 and 124 species respectively, accounting for around 60% of the total polypore species. Among the 500 species, 132 species were described based on the type materials from South China by the authors and their colleagues. A critical checklist of these polypores is provided and the host substrates of each species are listed following the species name. 294, 138, 112, 97, 78, 77, 30 and 29 species were found respectively on fallen trunks, fallen branches, rotten wood, dead standing trees, living trees, stumps, fallen twigs and ground. Fallen trunks are the most suitable substrates for polypores in South China.
The growth of fungi leading to degradation of grain quality and mycotoxin contamination is the main cause of grain loss. A combination of morphology and molecular phylogenetic analysis were used to study the composition of fungal communities and fungal diversity in 78 rice samples from 13 provinces in China. A total of 622 strains was isolated and 73 species in 17 genera were preliminarily identified. The obvious differences in climatic conditions between the southern and northern regions of China resulted in significant differences in fungal quantity and fungal composition on the rice grain surface. The quantity of fungi on the rice grains in southern China (10 4cfu/g) is significantly higher than that in northern China (10 3cfu/g). In northern China, the dominant species in harvest period were mainly species of Cladosporium. In southern China, the dominant species during harvest were Aspergillus flavus, A. niger and A. amstelodami, etc. After entering the storage period, with the high requirements of China’s warehouse management, the storage environment is relatively stable (aw≤0.75), and the xerophilic Aspergillus amstelodami and A. proliferans (accounting for more than 40% of the isolates) become dominant. These fungi can be used as an early warning indicator of abnormal grain piles in the storage period. A. flavus and A. niger infection during harvest in the south still maintain the high infection ratio in grain storage, leading to higher risk of mycotoxin contaminations of rice. Therefore, supervision and management should be strengthened during harvest and storage. The result of this study may provide reference for mycotoxin prevention and control of rice grains in China grain depot.
Macrofungi in Hanwula National Nature Reserve in Inner Mongolia were investigated. More than 800 specimens collected represent 308 species belonging to 108 genera, 45 families, 14 orders, 4 classes, and 2 phyla based on morphological identification and ITS evidence. Among them, 195 species in 8 families were dominant. Russulaceae, Agaricaceae and Inocybaceae account for 17.78% of the total families, containing 63.31% of the total species. Of the 15 dominant genera (containing 169 species) Russula, Inocybe and Agaricus (accounting for 13.89% of the total genera) make up 54.87% of the total species. Foristic analysis indicated that 128 species were cosmopolitan and 107 north-temperate, occupying 41.56% and 34.74% of the total species respectively. The results suggest that Hanwula National Nature Reserve region shows fundamentally north-temperate mycogeographically, but the macrofungal diversity varies with different vegetation types.
Totally 25 cordyceps (Cordyceps sensu lato) species have been reported on Orthoptera insects. Their hosts and distributions are reviewed and taxonomical notes for species are given. Using combined ITS and tef1-α sequence dataset, molecular phylogeny of cordyceps species on Orthoptera insects was constructed. Current species were assigned to three clades: the Beauveria, the Metarhizium and the Ophiocordyceps clades. Based on ecology and habits of the six well known groups of Orthoptera, the relation between species diversity and host of Orthoptera cordyceps is discussed. The rhizomorphs of cordyceps, a special root-like structure situated somewhere between fruiting bodies and synnemata, were observed on Beauveria spp. and Metacordyceps taii (syn. Metarhizium guizhouense). Beauveria grylli comb. nov. ≡ Cordyceps grylli = Beauveria loeiensis and Beauveria kirkii comb. nov. ≡ Cordyceps kirkii are proposed. The hosts of Beauveria grylli and Ophiocordyceps tettigonia are corrected.
The endophytic fungi isolated from the roots of five cultivated varieties of Hylocereus undatus (GHL-1, GHL-2, GHL-3, ML-1 and DL) were classified based on morphological observation and ITS sequence analysis. A total of 117 endophytic fungal isolates was obtained with average isolating frequency of 25.71%, belonging to 13 genera of which Trichoderma (24.79%), Fusarium (35.04%), Chaetomium (10.26%) and Phoma (10.26%) were dominant. Fungal population structure and specific composition of endophytic fungi varied with different varieties. The highest isolation frequency of Fusarium was obtained in GHL-2, GHL-3 and DL, and that of Trichoderma was obtained in GHL-1 and ML-1. The diversity index, richness index and evenness index of endophytic fungi varied with different varieties, and GHL-2 showed the highest. The results indicated that the diversity and specific composition of endophytic fungi were obviously affected by disparity in varieties.
Tree fern Alsophila spinulosa is an endangered relic plant in the world. The research on endophytic fungi in A. spinulosa has not been reported yet. Here, the diversity and community composition of endophytic fungi in A. spinulosa were investigated based on morphological characteristics and phylogenetic analyses of DNA sequence data. Our results revealed that A. spinulosa concealed abundant fungal species and the colonization rate of endophytic fungi reached 87.6%. A total of 291 isolates of endophytic fungi belonging to 64 different taxa was obtained from 234 living tissue segments of A. spinulosa; of which approximately 60% were common species, and Nemania diffusa exhibited predominant. Diversity index of endophytic fungi was as high as 3.53, and varied with different microhabitats ranged from high to low in order of rachis > root > pinna > petiole > bark. The species composition and distribution of endophytic fungi in the plants might be affected by tissue properties of A. spinulosa, as indicated by the analysis of cluster and Sorenson’s similarity coefficient. More than 80% of endophytic fungi in A. spinulosa sample had been isolated according to the analyses of species accumulation curves, and our result could reflect the diversity and community composition of the fungi. Analysis results of colonization rate, species richness, diversity, similarity of community in the petiole litter of A. spinulosa indicated that the community of fungi in the litter had changed considerably.
ITS2 region of ectomycorrhizal fungi (EcMF) in root tips and rhizosphere soil of Korean pine Pinus koraiensis in Northeast China was sequenced by using Illumina Hi-Seq platform. The correlations between EcMF community and climate factors, soil physical and chemical properties were analyzed statistically. 741 OTUs were obtained from root tips collected from June to October, and 85 OTUs of them were classified as EcMF according to FUNGuild database. The dominant EcMF genera in roots were Sebacina, Suillus, Meliniomyces, Russula, Tomentella, Rhizopogon and Amphinema. The diversity of EcMF in June was significantly higher than that in other months. Soil pH, rainfall, mean monthly temperature and effective nitrogen of soil influenced the composition of EcMF community in Korean pine forest, showing positive or negative correlations with the richness of the dominant genera. Rhizosphere soil fungi were another factor influencing the richness of some EcMF in root tips. Pochonia, Hyphodontia, Fusarium, Collembolispora, Clonostachys, Apodus and Amanita had linear correlation with EcMF in root tips. More than 85% of the EcMF genera in the root tips and rhizosphere soil were in common. Root EcMF community formation mainly depended on invasion and dispersion of fungi and plant selection because not all soil fungi were present in the root system.
Interspecies and intraspecies differences of indigenous Hanseniaspora in China are analyzed, and molecular fingerprinting profiles of the Hanseniaspora strains are built. Classical culture-dependent methods including WL nutrient agar, D1/D2 sequencing of 26S rRNA gene and 5.8S-ITS-RFLP analysis were used to identify 118 Hanseniaspora strains isolated from spontaneous fermentation of Vitis davidii in Ziyun of Guizhou province at species level. Tandem repeat-tRNA (TRtRNA) fingerprinting method was used to study molecular fingerprinting profiles of Hanseniaspora strains amplified with two pairs of microsatellite primers. The DPS software was further applied to analyze the phylogenetic correlation among different molecular fingerprinting profiles. The results showed that 118 Hanseniaspora strains identified by classical culture-dependent methods included H. opuntiae, H. uvarum and H. occidentalis. Five profiles were obtained by amplification with primer pair one TtRNASC and 5CAG, and ten profiles were obtained with primer pair two TtRNASC and ISSR-MB. Therefore, TRtRNA fingerprinting method could exhibit the interspecies and intraspecies differences of 118 Hanseniaspora strains. The intraspecies differences were largely indicated in H. uvarum strains. Both H. opuntiae and H. uvarum strains showed different TRtRNA fingerprinting profiles within species, manifesting their intraspecific genetic diversity.
Global species diversity of fungi has been estimated to be 2.2 million to 3.8 million species. Currently, only about 120 000 species were described, less than 8% of the total species number. A number of most recent studies based on high-throughput sequencing technologies have shown that the diversity of fungi in the natural environment may even largely exceed our previous estimates. However, in studies based on the traditional plating method, it is very hard to obtain the pure cultures of numerous fungal species. Therefore, exploring new fungal isolation methods is of great significance in improving our understanding on fungal diversity, as well as obtaining new biological resources for exploitation. In this study, we collected the sediment from a freshwater lake and isolated the samples through optimized culture conditions and in situ cultivation. The isolation efficiencies of these methods were evaluated by comparing the results obtained from traditional 25°C dilution plate and culture-independent metabarcoding sequencing method. Lower temperature was found to be very useful for capturing psychrophilic fungi and obviously affected composition of fungi captured. At both 4°C and 25°C, the addition of vitamins in the media significantly increased the diversities of isolated fungi, and the increment reached 207% and 81% at the generic level, respectively. In situ cultivation showed significant advantages in the efficiency of isolation, capture rate of unknown fungi, diversity and evenness of isolation, indicating that in situ cultivation method may have great potential in fungal isolation in future studies.
