Taxonomy And Phylogeny Of Exidia S.l. (Auriculariales) In China

Exidia Fr.is a group of pioneer gelatinous fungi belonging to Basidiomycota,Agaricomycetes,Auriculariales,Auriculariaceae,which is widely distributed around the world.However,there was rare research about Exidia around the word,so it was considered as a forgotten genusIn this study,traditional morphological taxonomy and phylogenetic analysis were used to study Exidia s.l,involving more than 160 specimen deposited in the herbaria of BJFC.The ITS and nLSU sequences were used as molecular markers,and phylogenetic trees were constructed by Maximum parsimony,Maximum likelihood,and Bayesian methodsThis study mainly focused on specimens of Exidia s.l.collected from China,which were compared with those specimens from other countries.12 species(10 from China and 2 from abroad)were described here.Macro-and Micro-morphological characteristics were described and photographed.Information of location,host etc were recorded.The differences between similar species were discussed.A key to 10 species in China was provided.7 species were newly described,including Exidia subglandulosa,Exidia reflexa,Exidia yadongensis,Exidia sp.l,Exidia sp.2,Exidia sp.3,and Exidia sp.496 new sequences were generated in this study(48 ITS&48 nLSU),of which 40(20 ITS&20 nLSU)have been uploaded to Genbank.112 sequences downloaed from Genbank(56 ITS&56 nLSU)were used in phylogenetic analysis.Phylogenetic analysis indicated that the genus is polyphyletic.Species in Exidia s.l.were clustered into 8 clades in the Auriculariaceae.However,it is hard to find stable and obvious morphological differences among these clades,so it is not suitable to separate the genus Exidia s.l.at this time,and the existing classification categories should be retained...