Russula swatica: A new species of Russula based on molecular, light microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy analyses from Swat Valley of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan

Abstract

Himalayan range of Pakistan is one of the diversity rich hotspots of the world. Many areas are yet to be explored here to discover new species of organisms including fungi. During present research, Swat District of Pakistan was explored for fungal diversity. One new species of mushroom Russula swatica (Russulales) is described from Himalayan range of Pakistan and analyzed by light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy as well as by molecular markers. A comprehensive description, photographs, and comparisons with morphologically similar and phylogenetically related species are provided. Conclusions of its phylogenetic relationships within the genus are provided based on the sequence of the nuclear internal transcribed spacer region.

Russula kashmiriana sp. nov. in subgenus Tenellula from Himalayan temperate forests of Pakistan

“…(Agaricomycetes, Russulales, Russulaceae) is considered to be one of the most abundant and widely distributed genera in diverse forests from the tropical to the frigid zones of all continents except Antarcatica and is a well known ectomycorrhizal genus, represented by more than 2000 species worldwide (Kirk et al 2008, Adamčík et al 2019). So far 32 species have been reported from Pakistan (Ahmad et al 1997, Niazi 2006, Jabeen et al 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017a, b, 2020, Razaq et al 2014, Saba and Khalid 2015, Crous et al 2018, 2020, Adamčík et al 2019, Sarwar et al 2019, Ullah et al 2020).…”

Description of the Fifth New Species of Russula subsect. Maculatinae from Pakistan Indicates Local Diversity Hotspot of Ectomycorrhizal Fungi in Southwestern Himalayas

“…The known diversity of Russula in Pakistan is overrepresented within this group and four species have already been described as new to science from relatively small area of southwestern Himalayas located in northern Pakistan. There are only seven other novel species of Russula described from Pakistan and supported by molecular phylogenetic analysis [ 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 ]. New collections from Pakistan with 97.75% similarity to closest published sequence in GenBank (MK966687 labelled as R. dryadicola originated from China) suggest that they may represent fifth Maculatinae species from this area.…”