Abstract
Species in Phellinus s.s. are some of the most important wood-decaying fungal pathogens in northern temperate forests, yet data on species incidence in North America remains limited. Therefore, phylogenetic analyses were performed using four loci (ITS, nLSU, tef1 and rpb2) with isolates representing 13 species. Results of phylogenetic analyses using maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference revealed that eight species of Phellinus s.s. occur in North America, and include: P. alni, P. arctostaphyli, P. betulinus, P. lundellii, P. nigricans, P. tremulae and two undescribed species, P. NA1 and P. NA2. Meanwhile, P. tuberculosus, P. igniarius s.s., P. populicola, P. laevigatus s.s. and P. orienticus were not detected and appear restricted to Europe and/or Asia. The tef1 dataset outperformed all other loci used and was able to discriminate among all 13 of the currently known Phellinus s.s. species with significant statistical support. The internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region performed well but a high level of intraspecific variation could lead to inflated taxa recognition. Phellinus alni exhibited the broadest host range, as demonstrated previously, and appears to be the most common species in northern hardwood (Acer-Betula-Fagus), northern floodplain (Fraxinus-Populus-Ulmus) and coastal alder (Alnus) forests of North America.
Highlights
Based on several independent studies that utilized the morphological, biological and phylogenetic species concepts, it is clear that Phellinus sensu stricto (s.s.) is composed of a limited number of species that cause a delignifying trunk rot of deciduous hardwoods, with minor exceptions [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12]
Based on the results of the analyses performed here, 13 phylogenetic species in Phellinus s.s. were differentiated from isolates that originated from northern North America, Europe and Asia (Table 1; Figures 1–4)
Most of the work aimed at elucidating the species in Phellinus s.s. has been performed in Europe, albeit with some isolates originating from North America [4,6,7,8,9,12,40]
Summary
Based on several independent studies that utilized the morphological, biological and phylogenetic species concepts, it is clear that Phellinus sensu stricto (s.s.) is composed of a limited number of species that cause a delignifying trunk rot of deciduous hardwoods, with minor exceptions [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12]. White trunk rot of hardwoods, caused by Phellinus s.s., has been described as the single most important rot of hardwoods in North America [14]. In North America, Phellinus s.s. is known to be most destructive in northern hardwood (Acer-Betula-Fagus) and aspen (Populus) forest types [14,15,16]. One of the first species to be distinguished from the P. igniarius sensu lato (s.l.) complex [18], acts as an aggressive pathogen of aspen (Populus; especially P. tremuloides) and has been shown to cause significant losses of merchantable timber in the U.S Lake States and Intermountain West [19,20]
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