Abstract
BackgroundUnderstanding the mechanisms underlying biological phenomena, such as evolutionarily conservative trait inheritance, is predicated on knowledge of the natural relationships among organisms. However, despite their enormous ecological significance, many of the ubiquitous soil inhabiting and plant symbiotic arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF, phylum Glomeromycota) are incorrectly classified.Methodology/Principal FindingsHere, we focused on a frequently used model AMF registered as culture BEG47. This fungus is a descendent of the ex-type culture-lineage of Glomus epigaeum, which in 1983 was synonymised with Glomus versiforme. It has since then been used as ‘G. versiforme BEG47’. We show by morphological comparisons, based on type material, collected 1860–61, of G. versiforme and on type material and living ex-type cultures of G. epigaeum, that these two AMF species cannot be conspecific, and by molecular phylogenetics that BEG47 is a member of the genus Diversispora.ConclusionsThis study highlights that experimental works published during the last >25 years on an AMF named ‘G. versiforme’ or ‘BEG47’ refer to D. epigaea, a species that is actually evolutionarily separated by hundreds of millions of years from all members of the genera in the Glomerales and thus from most other commonly used AMF ‘laboratory strains’. Detailed redescriptions substantiate the renaming of G. epigaeum (BEG47) as D. epigaea, positioning it systematically in the order Diversisporales, thus enabling an evolutionary understanding of genetical, physiological, and ecological traits, relative to those of other AMF. Diversispora epigaea is widely cultured as a laboratory strain of AMF, whereas G. versiforme appears not to have been cultured nor found in the field since its original description.
Highlights
A solid phylogeny is the basis for natural systematics and the understanding of hierarchical levels in taxonomy and functional diversity of organisms
This study highlights that experimental works published during the last .25 years on an arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus (AMF) named ‘G. versiforme’ or ‘BEG47’ refer to D. epigaea, a species that is evolutionarily separated by hundreds of millions of years from all members of the genera in the Glomerales and from most other commonly used AMF ‘laboratory strains’
Detailed redescriptions substantiate the renaming of G. epigaeum (BEG47) as D. epigaea, positioning it systematically in the order Diversisporales, enabling an evolutionary understanding of genetical, physiological, and ecological traits, relative to those of other AMF
Summary
A solid phylogeny is the basis for natural systematics and the understanding of hierarchical levels in taxonomy and functional diversity of organisms This is important for those organisms that are widely used in basic research and are commonly known as model species. We clarify and rectify the systematic classification of an experimentally frequently used arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus (AMF). Understanding the mechanisms underlying biological phenomena, such as evolutionarily conservative trait inheritance, is predicated on knowledge of the natural relationships among organisms. Despite their enormous ecological significance, many of the ubiquitous soil inhabiting and plant symbiotic arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF, phylum Glomeromycota) are incorrectly classified
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