Two new Erythrophylloporus species (Boletaceae) from Thailand, with two new combinations of American species

Rostrupomyces, a new genus to accommodate Xerocomussisongkhramensis, and a new Hemileccinum species (Xerocomoideae, Boletaceae) from Thailand

A new genus, Rostrupomyces is established to accommodate Xerocomussisongkhramensis based on multiple protein-coding genes (atp6, cox3, tef1, and rpb2) analyses of a wide taxon sampling of Boletaceae. In our phylogeny, the new genus was sister to Rubinosporus in subfamily Xerocomoideae, phylogenetically distant from Xerocomus, which was highly supported as sister to Phylloporus in the same subfamily Xerocomoideae. Rostrupomyces is different from other genera in Boletaceae by the following combination of characters: rugulose to subrugulose pileus surface, white pores when young becoming pale yellow in age, subscabrous stipe surface scattered with granulose squamules, white basal mycelium, unchanging color in any parts, yellowish brown spore print, and broadly ellipsoid to ellipsoid, smooth basidiospores. In addition, Hemileccinuminferius, also from subfamily Xerocomoideae, is newly described. Detailed descriptions and illustrations of the new genus and new species are presented.

Rubinosporus auriporus gen. et sp. nov. (Boletaceae: Xerocomoideae) from Tropical Forests of Thailand, Producing Unusual Dark Ruby Spore Deposits

Rubinosporus, a new bolete genus from tropical forests of Thailand is introduced with R. auriporus as the type species. The genus is unique among Xerocomoideae in producing dark ruby spore deposits. It can be differentiated from all other Boletaceae genera by the following combination of characters: pileus surface evenly covered with matted tomentum; stipe surface with evenly scattered minute squamules; golden yellow tubular hymenophore, which is relatively thin especially when young; unchanging surfaces and context when bruised or cut; smooth, broadly ellipsoid basidiospores; and dark ruby spore deposits. The Boletaceae-wide and Xerocomoideae-wide phylogenetic analyses based on four-gene data sets (atp6, cox3, rpb2, and tef1) support Rubinosporus as monophyletic and places it in Boletaceae subfamily Xerocomoideae. Full descriptions and illustrations of the new genus and species are presented.

Paxilloboletus gen. nov., a new lamellate bolete genus from tropical Africa

This study presents Paxilloboletus gen. nov., a new lamellate bolete genus represented by two tropical African species, Paxilloboletus africanus sp. nov. and Paxilloboletus latisporus sp. nov. Although the new taxa strongly resemble Paxillus (Paxillaceae), they lack clamp connections and form a separate generic clade within the Boletaceae phylogeny. The new species are lookalikes, morphologically only separable by their spore morphology. Descriptions and illustrations of the new genus and new species are given, as well as comments on ecology, distribution, and morphological differences with other gilled Boletaceae.

Two new Russula species (fungi) from dry dipterocarp forest in Thailand suggest niche specialization to this habitat type

Dry dipterocarp forests are among the most common habitat types in Thailand. Russulaceae are known as common ectomycorrhizal symbionts of Dipterocarpaceae trees in this type of habitat. The present study aims to identify collections of Russula subsection Amoeninae Buyck from dry dipterocarp forests in Thailand. A multi-locus phylogenetic analysis placed Thai Amoeninae collections in two novel lineages, and they are described here as R. bellissima sp. nov. and R. luteonana sp. nov. The closest identified relatives of both species were sequestrate species suggesting that they may belong to drought-adapted lineages. An analysis of publicly available ITS sequences in R. subsect. Amoeninae did not confirm evidence of any of the new species occurring in other Asian regions, indicating that dry dipterocarp forests might harbor a novel community of ectomycorrhizal fungi. Macromorphological characters are variable and are not totally reliable for distinguishing the new species from other previously described Asian Amoeninae species. Both new species are defined by a combination of differentiated micromorphological characteristics in spore ornamentation, hymenial cystidia and hyphal terminations in the pileipellis. The new Amoeninae species may correspond to some Russula species collected for consumption in Thailand, and the detailed description of the new species can be used for better identification of edible species and food safety in the region.

Continental-scale metagenomics, BLAST searches, and herbarium specimens: The Australian Microbiome Initiative and the National Herbarium of Victoria

PREMISE

Motivated to make sensible interpretations of the massive volume of data from the Australian Microbiome Initiative (AusMic), we characterize the soil mycota of Australia. We establish operational taxonomic units (OTUs) from the data and compare these to GenBank and a data set from the National Herbarium of Victoria (MEL), Melbourne, Australia. We also provide visualizations of Agaricomycete diversity, drawn from our analyses of the AusMic sequences and taxonomy.

METHODS

The AusMic internal transcribed spacer (ITS) data were filtered to create OTUs, which were searched against the National Center for Biotechnology Information Nucleotide database and the MEL database. We further characterized a portion of our OTUs by graphing the counts of the families and orders of Agaricomycetes. We also graphed AusMic species determinations for Australian Agaricomycetes against latitude.

RESULTS

Our filtering process generated 192,325 OTUs; for Agaricomycetes, there were 27,730 OTUs. Based on the existing AusMic taxonomy at species level, we inferred the diversity of Australian Agaricomycetes against latitude to be lowest between -20 and -25 decimal degrees.

DISCUSSION

BLAST comparisons provided reciprocal insights between the three data sets, including the detection of unusual root-associated species in the AusMic data, insights into mushroom morphology from the MEL data, and points of comparison for the taxonomic determinations between AusMic, GenBank, and MEL. This study provides a tabulation of Australian fungi, different visual snapshots of a subset of those taxa, and a springboard for future studies.

New species of Retiboletus (Boletales, Boletaceae) from China based on morphological and molecular data

Species of the genus Retiboletus in China were investigated based on morphology and phylogenetic analysis of DNA sequences from the nuclear ribosomal large subunit (nrLSU) and the translation elongation factor 1-α gene (TEF1-α). Nine species were recovered from China, including two new and seven known species. The new species, namely Retiboletusater and R.sinogriseus, from southwestern and northeastern China respectively, are documented and illustrated in this paper. Retiboletusater is morphologically characterized by its black to grayish black pileus, white to grayish hymenophore, black to blackish stipe and white to grayish white context. Retiboletussinogriseus is morphologically characterized by its brown to grayish-brown pileus, yellow to grayish-yellow hymenophore, pale yellow to brownish stipe and yellow to brownish-yellow context. Descriptions and line drawings of these two novel species and their comparisons with allied taxa are presented.