New combinations in Lactifluus, 1 : L. subgenera Edules, Lactariopsis, and Russulopsis

In this first of a series of three papers, new combinations in the genus Lactifluus are proposed. This paper treats the subgenera Edules, Lactariopsis, and Russulopsis (all proposed here as new combinations in Lactifluus). In Lactifluus subg. Edules, eight combinations at species level are proposed. In Lactifluus subg. Lactariopsis, the following three new combinations are proposed at sectional level: Lactifluus sect. Lactariopsis with seven newly combined species, L. sect. Chamaeleontini with eight newly combined species, and L. sect. Albati with four newly combined species plus two species previously combined in Lactifluus. Finally, in L. subg. Russulopsis, eight new combinations at species level are proposed

Morphology and phylogeny of four new Lactarius species from Himalayan India

Four new species of Lactarius are described from Himalayan India. Lactarius olivaceoglutinus, L. pyriodorus, and L. yumthangensis belong to L. subg. Piperites and L. indochrysorrheus is closely related to some representatives of L. subg. Russularia. An ITS based phylogeny confirms the phylogenetic placement of the four new species, although the monophyly of neither Lactarius subg. Piperites nor L. subg. Russularia can be confirmed. The ITS data also suggest that the Indian species are closely related to some European and American species

Descriptions and taxonomy of the Asian representatives of Lactarius sect. Deliciosi. Fungal Diversity

Fungal Diversity 171 reported species and the proportion of endemic species does not yet exist for the Asian continent. One of the major problems to be overcome is the lack of modern and illustrated descriptions and revisions from this continent Key words: Dapetes, Lactarius deliciosus, Lactarius horakii, microscopy, morphology Introduction In Asia, the knowledge of the genus Lactarius Pers. is poor and fragmentary. Several publications focused on Lactarius species associated with mainly Fagales (Castanopsis, Lithocarpus, Nothofagus) from the tropical, mostly montane rainforests of South-East Asia icity. The escription of L. deliciosus that we provide here is entirely based on specimens d on uropean collections can be found in Materials and methods This study is based on herbarium material obtained from BPI, H, HKAS, RMS, TMI and ZT or deposited in GENT. Macroscopical characters are based on observations on fresh collections or are compiled from literature and field notes attached to herbarium collections. Colour codes are according to Scanning electron photographs were taken with a JEOL JSM-5600 LV microscope. Small pieces of lamellae were taken from dried specimens and soaked overnight in strongly diluted ammonia. The material was then treated with 70% ethanol (2 × 15 min.) and dimethoxymethane (2 × 30 min.), before being submitted to the process of critical point drying. This was done with a BAL-TEC CDP 030 dryer. The samples were then coated with gold in a JEOL JFC-1200 Fine Coater for 60 sec. L. deliciosus sens

Looks can be deceiving : the deceptive milkcaps (Lactifluus, Russulaceae) exhibit low morphological variance but harbour high genetic diversity

The ectomycorrhizal genus Lactifluus is known to contain many species complexes, consisting of morphologically very similar species, which can be considered cryptic or pseudocryptic. In this paper, a thorough molecular study is performed of the Glade around Lactifluus deceptivus (originally described by Peck from North America) or the deceptive milkcaps. Even though most collections were identified as L. deceptivus, the Glade is shown to contain at least 15 species, distributed across Asia and America, indicating that the L. deceptivus Glade represents a species complex. These species are morphologically very similar and are characterized by a tomentose pileus with thin-walled hyphae and a velvety stipe with thick-walled hyphae. An ITS1 sequence was obtained through Illumina sequencing for the lectotype of L. deceptivus, dating from 1885, revealing which Glade represents the true L. deceptivus. In addition, it is shown that three other described species also belong to the L. deceptivus Glade: L. arcuatus, L. caeruleitinctus and L. mordax and molecularly confirmed that L. tomentoso-marginatus represents a synonym of L. deceptivus. Furthermore, two new Neotropical species are described: Lactifluus hallingii and L. domingensis

A multi-gene phylogeny of Lactifluus (Basidiomycota, Russulales) translated into a new infrageneric classification of the genus

Infrageneric relations of the genetically diverse milkcap genus Lactifluus (Russulales, Basidiomycota) are poorly known. Currently used classification systems still largely reflect the traditional, mainly morphological, characters used for infrageneric delimitations of milkcaps. Increased sampling, combined with small-scale molecular studies, show that this genus is underexplored and in need of revision. For this study, we assembled an extensive dataset of the genus Lactifluus, comprising 80 % of all known species and 30 % of the type collections. To unravel the infrageneric relationships within this genus, we combined a multi-gene molecular phylogeny, based on nuclear ITS, LSU, RPB2 and RPB1, with a morphological study, focussing on five important characteristics (fruit body type, presence of a secondary velum, colour reaction of the latex/context, pileipellis type and presence of true cystidia). Lactifluus comprises four supported subgenera, each containing several supported clades. With extensive sampling, ten new clades and at least 17 new species were discovered, which highlight the high diversity in this genus. The traditional infrageneric classification is only partly maintained and nomenclatural changes are proposed. Our morphological study shows that the five featured characteristics are important at different evolutionary levels, but further characteristics need to be studied to find morphological support for each clade. This study paves the way for a more detailed investigation of biogeographical history and character evolution within Lactifluus

Six simple guidelines for introducing new genera of fungi

We formulate five guidelines for introducing new genera, plus one recommendation how to publish the results of scientific research. We recommend that reviewers and editors adhere to these guidelines. We propose that the underlying research is solid, and that the results and the final solutions are properly discussed. The six criteria are: (1) all genera that are recognized should be monophyletic; (2) the coverage of the phylogenetic tree should be wide in number of species, geographic coverage, and type species of the genera under study; (3) the branching of the phylogenetic trees has to have sufficient statistical support; (4) different options for the translation of the phylogenetic tree into a formal classification should be discussed and the final decision justified; (5) the phylogenetic evidence should be based on more than one gene; and (6) all supporting evidence and background information should be included in the publication in which the new taxa are proposed, and this publication should be peer-reviewed

Fungal metabarcoding data integration framework for the MycoDiversity DataBase (MDDB)

Fungi have crucial roles in ecosystems, and are important associates for many organisms. They are adapted to a wide variety of habitats, however their global distribution and diversity remains poorly documented. The exponential growth of DNA barcode information retrieved from the environment is assisting considerably the traditional ways for unraveling fungal diversity and detection. The raw DNA data in association to environmental descriptors of metabarcoding studies are made available in public sequence read archives. While this is potentially a valuable source of information for the investigation of Fungi across diverse environmental conditions, the annotation used to describe environment is heterogenous. Moreover, a uniform processing pipeline still needs to be applied to the available raw DNA data. Hence, a comprehensive framework to analyses these data in a large context is still lacking. We introduce the MycoDiversity DataBase, a database which includes public fungal metabarcoding data of environmental samples for the study of biodiversity patterns of Fungi. The framework we propose will contribute to our understanding of fungal biodiversity and aims to become a valuable source for large-scale analyses of patterns in space and time, in addition to assisting evolutionary and ecological research on Fungi