Phylogenetic relationships among Puccinia hemerocallidis, P. funkiae, and P. patriniae (Uredinales) inferred from ITS sequence data

Abstract

Puccinia hemerocallidis and P. funkiae resemble each other morphologically; however, they are biologically and taxonomically distinct, with telia of the former being restricted to species of Hemerocallis and the latter to Hosta species. However, both fungi share a macrocyclic and heteroecious life cycle with Patrinia villosa as the spermogonial and aecial host. An additional microcyclic rust fungus, P. patriniae, is also known on P. villosa. This microcyclic fungus is similar to the two macrocyclic fungi in its telial structure and teliospore morphology. These similarities in morphology and host relationships suggest the three fungi may also share a close evolutionary relationship. To determine the phylogenetic relationships of the three species, a portion of the nuclear ribosomal DNA repeat encoding the ITS and 5.8S subunit regions was amplified by PCR, sequenced, and analyzed. The resulting phylogenetic trees showed that P. hemerocallidis and P. funkiae share a recent common ancestor and that P. patriniae is closely allied with P. hemerocallidis. The results suggest a possible evolutionary derivation of microcyclic P. patriniae from macrocyclic heteroecious P. hemerocallidis, which fits the evolutionary interpretation of correlated species known as Tranzschel's law.

Phylogeny and taxonomy of the Asian grapevine leaf rust fungus, Phakopsora euvitis, and its allies (Uredinales)

“…hemerocallidis Thümen, into North America (William-Woodward et al 2001). Peculiarly, ITS sequence differences at 13 base positions were detected between the Japanese and North American daylily rust collections (Hernándes et al 2002;Chatasiri et al 2006). No pertinent interpretation was possible for the genetic differences between them because neither spermogonialaecial nor uredinial-telial hosts of the fungus are indigenous in North America.…”

Identification of daylily rust (Puccinia hemerocallidis) and characterization of resistance of five genotypes

“…The RCH1 and RFOR2 isolates inoculated in the different genotypes caused the same resistance reactions, which indicates that there are no variations in pathogenicity. However, studies conducted by Hernández et al (2002) and Chatasiri et al (2006) indicate that there is proof of variation in the pathogen, because by comparing the ITS region of several isolates coming from different America and Asia geographical areas, they observed genetic differences in the specimens from each continent. However, they point out that a wider sampling is needed in order to determine if there is genetic variability in the fungus.…”

Molecular phylogeny suggests a single origin of insect symbiosis in the Pucciniomycetes with support for some relationships within the genus Septobasidium

“…To date, only a few molecular studies have attempted to assess relationships within the important basidiomycete group Pucciniomycetes (Swann and Taylor, 1995;Frieders, 1997;Maier et al, 2003), and none have attempted to test the monophyly of the Septobasidiales or the Septobasidiaceae. Generic, subgeneric, and species concepts have been tested in some Pucciniomycetes using molecular phylogenetic techniques (Maier et al, 2003;Chung et al, 2004;Lutz et al, 2004;Tian et al, 2004;Chatasiri et al, 2006;Liang et al, 2006;Szabo, 2006), but no studies have focused on the Septobasidiales.…”