Evolutionary relationships of Mycaureola dilseae (Agaricales), a basidiomycete pathogen of a subtidal rhodophyte

Mushroom-forming fungi (homobasidiomycetes) are major examples of morphological and ecological diversification in terrestrial habitats. Homobasidiomycetes includes only nine described species that are known from marine environments. Morphological traits that have concealed the ancestry of these fungi include reduced fruiting bodies with hairy surfaces and extremely modified spores, both of which may function as floating devices to aid successful dispersal and adhesion to various substrates such as driftwood. Our previous results suggested that all marine forms as yet investigated are placed in the Nia clade (euagarics) and that they have primarily evolved from cypelloid forms (minute, cup-shaped, terrestrial saprotrophs) via transitions through mangroves to fully marine habitats. We show here that Mycaureola dilseae, which parasitizes the red alga Dilsea carnosa, is a second independent lineage of marine fungi in the euagarics clade that is not related to cyphelloid forms. Phylogenetic reconstructions were based on two data sets: a partial four-region rDNA data set (nuc-ssu, nuc-lsu, mt-ssu, and mt-lsu) with inclusive sampling of 249 taxa and a densely sampled ITS data set including 32 taxa, which formed a clade with Mycaureola in the four-region rDNA analyses. Inferences using constrained and unconstrained six-parameter weighted parsimony, Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo methods, and maximum likelihood approaches place M. dilseae in the morphologically diverse /physalacriaceae clade next to Gloiocephala spp., a group of highly reduced stipitate-pileate saprotrophs.