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Title: MOLECULAR STUDIES OF THE BIONECTRIACEAE, HYPOCREALES, USING LARGE SUBUNIT RDNA

Author
item Rossman, Amy
item McKemy, John
item SCHULTHEISS, REBECCA - BELTSVILLE, MD
item SCHROERS, HANS-JOSEF - THE NETHERLANDS

Submitted to: Mycologia
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/23/2000
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Fungi are used in the biological control of plant pathogens, yet their systematics, particularly the relationships among groups of biocontrol fungi, is relatively unknown or inaccurate. The classification of biocontrol fungi is important because locating the most effective biocontrol fungi is based on knowledge of the group to which a particular fungus may belong. Theoretically the group should include closely related species that are expected to behave in a predictable manner. In this paper the sexual and asexual states of species classified in the Bionectriaceae, a family of the ascomycete order Hypocreales, have been studied. Based on molecular data, the relationships among these species are delineated and are shown to reflect their generic classification. Using this work plant pathologists can locate sources of fungi that might be effective in the biological control of plant pathogens.

Technical Abstract: Species of eleven genera in the family Bionectriaceae, Hypocreaales, and related anamorph species were studied using nuclear large subunit rDNA sequences. The Bionectriaceae is shown to be a monophyletic sister clade to two other families in the Hypocreales, namely the Nectriaceae and the Hypocreaceae. The genus, Bionectria, represented by three species, appears as a monophyletic lineage that groups with two species that may also belon to Bionectria. The next closest sister clade is the genus Nectriopsis represented by two myxomyceticolous species including the type. Although most members of the Hypocreales have perithecial ascomata, taxa with cleistothecial ascomata occur in the Bionectriaceae. Two cleistothecial genera, Heleoccoccum, represented by the non-type species, H. japonense, and the monospecific genus, Roumegueriella, R. rufula, group with Hydropisphaera peziza, type of the genus Hydropisphaera. Hydropisphaera erubescens is not monophyletic with H. peziza. A strain of Hydropisphaera erubescens isolated from saltmarsh-inhabiting smooth cordgrass in Georgia is found to be conspecific with strains previously known only from terrestrial habitats.