Phylogenetic analysis of lichen-forming fungi Rhizoplaca zopf from China based on ITS data and morphology
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Isolation, Characterization, and Total DNA Extraction to Identify Endophytic Fungi in Mycoheterotrophic Plants
Published on: May 5, 2023
Xiao-Ling Zheng1, Hong-Mei Sheng, Li-Zhe An
1Key Laboratory of Arid and Grassland Agroecology of Ministry of Education, School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, PR China.
Abstract:
A molecular phylogenetic analysis of Rhizoplaca melanophthalma, Rhizoplaca chrysoleuca, Rhizoplaca peltata and Rhizoplaca haydenii is presented based on the nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions and morphology. Rhizoplaca species were collected at 3400-3900 m in Tianshan Mountains, Xinjiang province, China. Rhizoplaca haydenii is reported for the first time in China. Maximum parsimony (MP) analysis of ITS sequences obtained from Tianshan Mountains samples and GenBank reveals that the evolution relationship of Rhizoplaca melanophthalma and Rhizoplaca chrysoleuca is closer to each other than to Rhizoplaca peltata, and Rhizoplaca haydenii showed closer relatedness to Rhizoplaca melanophthalma. When the four species groups from Tianshan Mountains were analyzed alone through the neighbour-joining (NJ) and minimum evolution method, we obtained the same result. The morphology analysis of Rhizoplaca Zopf which reveals the pruinose discs and apothecial discs of species did not show convincing evidences to prove phylogenetic relationship among Rhizoplaca species In our study, the result further proved that Rhizoplaca should be rejected as a genus separate from Lecanora.
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