Molecular taxonomy and phylogenetics of Daedaleopsis confragosa (Bolt.: Fr.) J. Schröt. From wild cherry in Serbia

Abstract

Daedaleopsis spp., a lignicolous fungus causes of white rot on wild cherry and other broadleaved species and makes economic losses in Serbian forestry. The paper presents results of two morphologically distinct fungi Daedaleopsis confragosa and Daedaleopsis tricolor isolated from native populations of wild cherry (Prunus avium L.) found in the sites of Protected Forests of Serbia. Morphological appearance of D. tricolor was found more abundant in comparison to D. confragosa species. Samples from Serbia were analysed using morphometric and molecular tools and compared with isolates from United Kingdom and published sequences from Sweden, Austria, Hungary, Germany, Canada, France, USA and Czech Republic to give the taxonomic insight and their genetic relatedness using fungal barcoding region ITS rDNA. Results from BLAST search confirmed morphology of the isolates to their taxonomic affiliation as D. confragosa while sequence analysis showed mutations at several polymorphic positions that indicates genetic divergence to D. tricolor. Phylogenetic analysis presents narrow genetic relations of Serbian isolates with the one from United Kingdom while distinctness from other countries investigated specimens. Future work needs variable regions for both species to be amplified in order to evaluate species boundaries or employing NGS technologies in more detailed sequence analyses.