Evolutionary history of Serpulaceae (Basidiomycota): molecular phylogeny, historical biogeography and evidence for a single transition of nutritional mode.

Inger Skrede,Tor Carlsen,Mika Bendiksby,Ingeborg B Engh,Håvard Kauserud,Manfred Binder

doi:10.1186/1471-2148-11-230

Inger Skrede, Tor Carlsen + Show 4 more

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https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2148-11-230

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Journal: BMC ecology	Publication Date: Aug 4, 2011
Citations: 130	License type: cc-by

Affiliation: University of Oslo, Clark University

Abstract

BackgroundThe fungal genus Serpula (Serpulaceae, Boletales) comprises several saprotrophic (brown rot) taxa, including the aggressive house-infecting dry rot fungus Serpula lacrymans. Recent phylogenetic analyses have indicated that the ectomycorrhiza forming genera Austropaxillus and Gymnopaxillus cluster within Serpula. In this study we use DNA sequence data to investigate phylogenetic relationships, historical biogeography of, and nutritional mode transitions in Serpulaceae.ResultsOur results corroborate that the two ectomycorrhiza-forming genera, Austropaxillus and Gymnopaxillus, form a monophyletic group nested within the saprotrophic genus Serpula, and that the Serpula species S. lacrymans and S. himantioides constitute the sister group to the Austropaxillus-Gymnopaxillus clade. We found that both vicariance (Beringian) and long distance dispersal events are needed to explain the phylogeny and current distributions of taxa within Serpulaceae. Our results also show that the transition from brown rot to mycorrhiza has happened only once in a monophyletic Serpulaceae, probably between 50 and 22 million years before present.ConclusionsThis study supports the growing understanding that the same geographical barriers that limit plant- and animal dispersal also limit the spread of fungi, as a combination of vicariance and long distance dispersal events are needed to explain the present patterns of distribution in Serpulaceae. Our results verify the transition from brown rot to ECM within Serpulaceae between 50 and 22 MyBP.

Highlights

The fungal genus Serpula (Serpulaceae, Boletales) comprises several saprotrophic taxa, including the aggressive house-infecting dry rot fungus Serpula lacrymans
Taxon sampling We generated DNA sequence data from 30 accessions of five Serpula species and six accessions representing six species of Austropaxillus (Additional file 1: Specimens included in this study)
The Serpulaceae/ Tapinellineae group consists of brown rot species except for the Austropaxillus clade

Summary

Introduction

The fungal genus Serpula (Serpulaceae, Boletales) comprises several saprotrophic (brown rot) taxa, including the aggressive house-infecting dry rot fungus Serpula lacrymans. Studying fungal distributions in an evolutionary context is relatively new, mainly due to the long-standing perception that fungi are more or less free from dispersal barriers, and that fungal distributions are primarily controlled by the distribution of hosts and substrata (see [1]). This notion of “cosmopolitan species” has recently been challenged by molecularly based studies [2,3,4]. Vicariance versus long distance dispersal are two alternative explanations to widely disjunct distributions, and have been identified to operate in most groups of organisms [7,8]. Vicariance has given explanatory power for disjunct distributions in some extomycorrhizal fungi such as pacific boletes [9] and truffle-formin fungi in the Hysterangiales [10], while dispersal best explains the distribution of the wood-rot fungi Ganoderma [11]

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