Abstract
Identification of Podaxis species to species-level based on morphology alone is problematic. Thus, species of the genus Podaxis are in dire need of taxonomic and phylogenetic evaluations using molecular data to develop a consensus between morphological taxonomy and more robust molecular analyses. In Mexico, most of the collected specimens of Podaxis have been morphologically identified as Podaxis pistillarissensu lato and are locally used for its culinary value. In this study, the internal transcribed spacer region of Podaxis specimens from the MEXU fungarium collected between 1948 and 2014 from arid regions of Mexico were sequenced and these collections placed into a molecular phylogenetic framework using Maximum Likelihood analysis. In addition, the ethnomycological use of Podaxis in Mexico (utility, traditional handling, economic importance, etc.) is described by observations, interviews, and sampling of Podaxis species with local people from three areas of the region of the Cañada of Oaxaca, which belongs to the Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Biosphere Reserve. These results indicate that the Mexican Podaxis were divided into two clades. Specimens collected in the northern region showed phylogenetic affinities to clade D, while specimens from the south of Mexico clustered within clade E. Morphological data, such as spore length and width, showed significant differences between the two phylogenetic clades, implying that these clades represent different species. None of the Mexican specimens were found in association with termite mounds, which might indicate an adaptation to desert-like regions. This study provides the first ethnomycological use of Podaxis from Mexico.
Highlights
Podaxis has been collected from numerous arid regions around world; approximately 44 species have been described to date (Conlon et al 2016)
Conlon and collaborators (2016) studied 45 specimens labeled as Podaxis pistillaris, mainly from South Africa, and based on combined internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region and LSU rDNA phylogeny analyses demonstrated that the genus contained at least six clades (A-F) representing different putative Podaxis spp
Based on the Mann-Whitney (U-test), we found that spore length (p < 0.001; Figure 3A) and width (p < 0.001; Figure 3B), were significantly different between clades D and E, which supports their molecular phylogenetic placements based on the ITS phylogeny (Figure 4)
Summary
Podaxis has been collected from numerous arid regions around world; approximately 44 species have been described to date (Conlon et al 2016). This genus encompasses a wide range of morphological characters such as variation in color, size and shapes in fruit body morphology, as well as a wide range of spore length, width and wall thickness, and has often been confused with Coprinus comatus (Morse 1933; Morse 1941; Herrera 1950). T. Patouillard identified P. farlowii from Sonora (Morse 1933), and in 1938, D. The reduction of names of all specimens in the MEXU fungarium to P. pistillaris has not been previously investigated in light of molecular data
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