You are here
Harvard Forest Symposium Abstract 2011
- Title: Conservation of biotrophy in Hygrophoraceae (Basidiomycota: Agaricales) inferred from combined stable isotope and phylogenetic analyses
- Primary Author: Brian Seitzman (Clark University)
- Additional Authors: David Hibbett (Clark University); Erik Hobbie (University of New Hampshire - Main Campus)
- Abstract:
The nutritional modes of genera in Hygrophoraceae, apart from the ectomycorrhizal Hygrophorus and lichen-forming taxa, are uncertain. New δ15N and δ13C values were obtained from 15 taxa under Hygrophoraceae collected in central Massachusetts and combined with isotopic data sets from five prior studies including a further 12 species using a data standardization method to allow cross-site comparison. Based upon this, we inferred the probable nutritional modes for the genera Hygrophorus, Hygrocybe, Humidicutis, Cuphophyllus, Camarophyllus and Gliophorus. A phylogeny of Hygrophoraceae was constructed by maximum likelihood analysis of nuclear ribosomal 28S and 5.8S sequences and standardized δ15N and δ13C used for parsimony optimization on this phylogeny. Our results support the existence of biotrophic nutritional strategies in Hygrocybe, Humidicutis, Cuphophyllus, Camarophyllus and Gliophorus quantitatively unlike those in more than 450 other fungal taxa sampled in the present and prior studies. Parsimony optimization of stable isotope data indicates moderate conservation of nutritional strategies in Hygrophoraceae and reconstructs a single switch to a predominantly ectomycorrhizal lifestyle in the lineage leading to Hygrophorus. We conclude that Hygrophoraceae of previously unknown nutritional status are unlikely to be saprotrophs as conventionally understood.
- Research Category: Biodiversity Studies
