Abstract
The smut fungal genus Microbotryum (Microbotryales, Pucciniomycotina) contains species that parasitize plants from many different lineages of euasterids, with host specificity of individual parasite species in general being exceptionally high. Additionally, it has been shown that the location of spore production in some species is related to spore dispersal. In this phylogenetic study based on ITS and LSU rDNA data of 57 Microbotryum spp., host spectra and sorus location are mapped on the phylogeny of Microbotryum species in order to understand the macroevolutionary patterns of these two traits. We find that monophyletic parasite clades correspond well with monophyletic host clades and also that monophyletic parasite groups in general produce their spores in the same plant organ. Ancestral state reconstruction inferred the most probable ancestral trait for sorus location being leaves and the most probable ancestral host family for the genus Microbotryum as being the Polygonaceae. According to molecular analyses, a newly sequenced specimen of Ustilago ducellieri, a seed parasite on Arenaria leptoclados, previously treated as synonym of Microbotryum duriaeanum, belongs to a lineage distinct from specimens of M. duriaeanum. A new combination, Microbotryum ducellieri, is accordingly proposed. Taxonomic implications of the presented analyses for the genera Bauhinus and Haradaea are briefly discussed.
Highlights
The fungal genus Microbotryum, with 98 described species (Denchev and Denchev 2011; Vánky 2012; Piątek et al 2012, 2013; Ziegler et al 2018; Denchev et al 2019), is mainly known for containing the agents of anther smut disease in hosts of the Caryophyllaceae
In order to gain more insight into these topics, this study addressed the following questions: (1) Are the caryophyllaceous Microbotryum species that form sori in ovules/seeds monophyletic, and how are they related to the caryophyllaceous anther smuts? (2) What is the ancestral state of sorus location in the genus Microbotryum, and how is the location of spore production reflected by Microbotryum phylogeny? (3) Are monophyletic clades of parasites restricted to monophyletic groups of hosts, and what is the most likely ancestral host genus parasitized by members of the genus Microbotryum? To answer these questions, molecular phylogenetic analyses and ancestral state reconstructions were performed based on a broad species sampling that covers 57 Microbotryum species, many of which are considered in phylogenetic analyses here for the first time
To infer the phylogenetic relationships within the genus Microbotryum, a dataset comprising newly generated sequences and representative sequences for Microbotryum species taken from GenBank (Table S1) was assembled
Summary
The fungal genus Microbotryum, with 98 described species (Denchev and Denchev 2011; Vánky 2012; Piątek et al 2012, 2013; Ziegler et al 2018; Denchev et al 2019), is mainly known for containing the agents of anther smut disease in hosts of the Caryophyllaceae. In this group of parasites, it is assumed that the production of teliospores in the anthers is most likely an adaptation to host pollinators that increases parasite dispersal.
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