Molecular Phylogeny And Coevolution Between Termitomcyes And Fungus-Growing Termites In Yunnan

Termitomyces is one of the most precious wild mushroom in the world which has symbiosis with insectof Macrotermitinae. Approximately40Termitomyces species have been described all over the world, ofwhich20species of Termitomyces distributed in Yunnan province of china. In addition to Shangri-La(acity of Yunnan province), other regions of Yunnan province can be found Termitomyces and Yunnan isalso a biggest province that produce and trade Termitomyces. The research of Termitomyces could betrace back to the middle of the seventeenth century, which have over160years. At an early age,taxonomy and distribution of Termitomyces in the world were studied by the scholars home and abroad.Entering the twenty-first Century, the development of molecular biological technique provides a novelmethods for the systematic research of Termitomyces. The problems of origin, migration and coevolutionwere probed by foreign scholars employing molecular techniques. Current knowledges about the statusof Yunnan province as a region where is rich in species diversity of Termitomyces and theirfungus-growth termites, remains elusive.In this study, samples of Termitomyces and fungus-growth termites were collected from same nest and atotal of116samples were obtained respectively. In order to understand the underlying mechanism ofTermitomyces diversity in Yunnan province, Phylogenetic relationship between Termitomyces and theirsymbiotic termites were analyzed and subsequently, by combinating other Termitomyces andfungus-growth termites in other places with termites collected in our study, the status of YunnanTermitomyces and fungus-growth termites in the global Phylogeny were examined. Finally, speciescoevolution analysis of Termitomyces and fungus-growth termites was also conducted. The main resultsare summarized as follows:1)By using Bayesian inference methods, phylogenetic relationship were constructed based on ITSsequence of116sample of termites mushroom from Yunnan province.The results showed thatTermitomyces are very rich in Yunnan and can be classified into10groups based upon their geneticrelationship including Sinotermitomyces, T.tyleranus, T.microcarpus and many other morphologicallyspecies. The Termitomyces in Yunnan which evolution from Africa and3lineage in phylogenetic formedYunnan regional characteristic. The diversity of Termitomyces in Yunnan show there have a newevolution central.2)By combinating termites coevolution with termites mushrooms from Yunnan province with that fromall over the world, employing Bayesian inference methods, phylogenetic relationship were constructedbased on COII sequence of termites which symbiotic with mushrooms in the world and the problemsconcerning origin region and time of termites coevolution with termites mushrooms were also examined,the results indicated that termites which are symbiotic with termites mushroom originated in35.8millionyears ago late Eocene of Africa, genus of termites were evolved and formed in miocene. In Yunnanprovince, Macrotermes in Macrotermitinae which are symbiotic with termites mushroom migrated to Yunnan province10.3millions of years ago while termites in Odontotermes migrated to Yunnanprovince3.8millions of years ago.3) Termitomyces and fungus-growth termites from Yunnan province have poor selective specificity eachother. Almost every termites genus in macrotermitinae were symbiotic with Termitomyces from differentphylogenetic clades in which Termitomyces was nearly symbiosis with different genus of termites. Very afew of coevolution relationship from Yunnan Termitomyces and fungus-growth termites were found.4)Our results indicated that in addition to macrotermitinae, some of species from Euhamitermes,Procapritermes also symbiosis with Termitomyces. Other termites that are not from macrotermitinaesymbiosis with Termitomyces has never been reported. our results providing important insights intounderstanding of symbiotic relationship between Termitomyces and fungus-growth termites.