Morphologic and molecular data help adopting the insect-pathogenic nephridiophagids (Nephridiophagidae) among the early diverging fungal lineages, close to the Chytridiomycota

Abstract

Nephridiophagids are poorly known unicellular eukaryotes, previously of uncertain systematic position, that parasitize the Malpighian tubules of insects. Their life cycle includes merogony with multinucleate plasmodia and sporogony leading to small, uninucleate spores. We examined the phylogenetic affiliations of three species of Nephridiophaga, including one new species, Nephridiophaga maderae, from the Madeira cockroach (Leucophaea maderae). In addition to the specific host, the new species differs from those already known by the size of the spores and by the number of spores within the sporogenic plasmodium. The inferred phylogenetic analyses strongly support a placement of the nephridiophagids in the fungal kingdom near its root and with a close, but unresolved, relationship to the chytids (Chytridiomycota). We found evidence for the nephridiophagidean speciation as being strongly coupled to host speciation. Copyright RESEARCH ARTICLERenate Radek et al. / MycoKeys 25: 31-50 (2017) 32

Introducing ribosomal tandem repeat barcoding for fungi

“…De Vargas et al 2015;Wurzbacher et al 2017). We are currently missing a lot of reference data in the databases used on a regular basis.…”

“…This was followed by a whole genome amplification (illustra single cell GenomiPhi V1/V2 DNA amplification kit; GE Healthcare), which served as DNA template for our ribosomal PCRs (n = 9). Furthermore, to test the amplification of extremely distant fungal lineages from an animal host, we worked with DNA extracted from Malpighian tubule tissue from two cockroaches infected with Nephridiophaga, derived from previous work (Radek et al 2017).…”

Fungal evolution: diversity, taxonomy and phylogeny of the Fungi

“…Nephridiophagida is an enigmatic and understudied group of intracellular parasites historically classified as related to Haplosporidia or Microsporidia, to the point that some species were originally described within microsporidian genera (Radek et al ., ). To date, members of this group have been only described as extracellular parasites associated with the Malpighian tubules of some insects and the millipede Xenobolus .…”

“…To date, members of this group have been only described as extracellular parasites associated with the Malpighian tubules of some insects and the millipede Xenobolus . Four genera are currently described: Nephridiophaga , Coelosporidium , Oryctospora and Peltomyces (Lange, ; Radek et al ., ). Nephridiophaga periplanetae has been described as a multinucleated mitochondriated amoeboid stage with the ability to attach to microvilli of the host cell and with endocytic germination with somatic and germinative differentiation of nuclei (Lange, ; Radek et al ., ).…”

“…Four genera are currently described: Nephridiophaga , Coelosporidium , Oryctospora and Peltomyces (Lange, ; Radek et al ., ). Nephridiophaga periplanetae has been described as a multinucleated mitochondriated amoeboid stage with the ability to attach to microvilli of the host cell and with endocytic germination with somatic and germinative differentiation of nuclei (Lange, ; Radek et al ., ). The first phylogenetic analysis of this group based on the 18S rRNA gene placed them within zygomycetous fungi, and they have been proposed to be related to Dimargaritales or Harpellales (Wylezich, Radek, & Schlegel, ).…”