<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Extensive morphological and molecular analyses of closely related species from alpine, subalpine and montane habitats should enable a comparison of ecological, morphological and phylogenetic species concepts in ectomycorrhizal mushrooms. One fundamental question of this study was whether alpine species really exist, and which criteria, besides the specific habitat, could reliably be used for the de-limitation of such taxa. For this reason, 56 rDNA ITS sequences were generated or downloaded from GenBank for 10 closely related species of <italic>Cortinarius</italic> subgenus <italic>Myxacium</italic>, section <italic>Myxacium.</italic> Several collections were sequenced for each of the following taxa: <italic>Cortinarius absarokensis, C. alpinus, C. favrei, C. fennoscandicus, C. grallipes, C. mucosus, C. muscigenus, C. septentrionalis, C. trivialis</italic> and <italic>C. vernicosus.</italic> Moreover, spore statistics were carried out for 38 collections of alpine and subalpine taxa. These data provide clear evidence for <italic>C. favrei</italic> being a synonym of <italic>C. alpinus. C. absarokensis</italic> and <italic>C. alpinus</italic> can clearly be delimited based on pileus diameter and average dry weight per basidiome, even in overlapping habitats, but spore size and shape is not a good distinguishing character. Phylograms have very short branches, and base differences between ITS sequences are generally very low in this group, and give no resolution for the included taxa of this section. Based on these results, species concepts of ectomycorrhizal mushrooms are discussed in detail.</p></abstract>

Extensive morphological and molecular analyses of closely related species from alpine, subalpine and montane habitats should enable a comparison of ecological, morphological and phylogenetic species concepts in ectomycorrhizal mushrooms. One fundamental question of this study was whether alpine species really exist, and which criteria, besides the specific habitat, could reliably be used for the de-limitation of such taxa. For this reason, 56 rDNA ITS sequences were generated or downloaded from GenBank for 10 closely related species of Cortinarius subgenus Myxacium, section Myxacium. Several collections were sequenced for each of the following taxa: Cortinarius absarokensis, C. alpinus, C. favrei, C. fennoscandicus, C. grallipes, C. mucosus, C. muscigenus, C. septentrionalis, C. trivialis and C. vernicosus. Moreover, spore statistics were carried out for 38 collections of alpine and subalpine taxa. These data provide clear evidence for C. favrei being a synonym of C. alpinus. C. absarokensis and C. alpinus can clearly be delimited based on pileus diameter and average dry weight per basidiome, even in overlapping habitats, but spore size and shape is not a good distinguishing character. Phylograms have very short branches, and base differences between ITS sequences are generally very low in this group, and give no resolution for the included taxa of this section. Based on these results, species concepts of ectomycorrhizal mushrooms are discussed in detail.

Cortinarius alpinus as an example for morphological and phylogenetic species concepts in ectomycorrhizal fungi

Sommerfeltia

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Extensive morphological and molecular analyses of closely related species from alpine, subalpine and montane habitats should enable a comparison of ecological,...

Cortinarius alpinus as an example for morphological and phylogenetic species concepts in ectomycorrhizal fungi

Published Online: Oct 04, 2011

Page range: 161 - 177

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/v10208-011-0009-1

Keywords
host specificity, morphological species recognition, phylogenetic species recognition

© 2008 U. Peintner, published by Versita

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Cortinarius alpinus as an example for morphological and phylogenetic species concepts in ectomycorrhizal fungi

Published Online: Oct 04, 2011

Page range: 161 - 177

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/v10208-011-0009-1

Keywordshost specificity, morphological species recognition, phylogenetic species recognition

© 2008 U. Peintner, published by Versita

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
host specificity, morphological species recognition, phylogenetic species recognition