Figure 1.
A–D: Peridium types in Stemonitales; A: Early evanescent peridium: Stemonitis pallida1; B: Early evanescent peridium: Comatricha nigra1; C: Splitting out peridium: Meriderma spinulosporum1; D: Persistent, shining peridium: Lamproderma sauteri2. E–H: Genera allied to Lamproderma; E: Diacheopsis metallica2; F: Colloderma robustum, developing sporophore3; G: Colloderma robustum4; H: Colloderma oculatum1. I–K: Spore ornamentation in Meriderma; I: Spinulose in M. echinulatum1; J: Nearly complete reticulum in M. carestiae1; K: Reticulate in M. cribrarioides1. L–O: The “Lamproderma maculatum" group; L: L. acanthosporum1; M: L. maculatum1; N: L. pseudomaculatum (M–N: also with white splinters in the peridium)1; O: L. echinosporum1. (Photos: 1: Alain Michaud, 2: Michel Poulain, 3: Martin Schnittler, 4: Anna Maria Fiore-Donno).
Figure 2.
SSU rDNA gene tree of selected Stemonitales and Physarales derived by Bayesian inference of 1566 nucleotide positions of 84 taxa.
Species names are followed by GenBank accession number, except for sequences obtained during this study (in bold), whose accession numbers and collection sites are in Table S1; sequences are marked by an asterisk if partial. Clades including more than one species are highlighted by a rectangle and arbitrarily named. Names of orders are in capitals (in grey if paraphyletic). Bayesian posterior probabilities (BPP)/ML bootstrap replicates (MLB) are shown for each branch, a dot on the line indicates maximum support in both analyses. Grey numbers indicate low support (BPP<0.9 or MLB<70%), dashes indicate a conflicting topology in the ML tree. The scale bar indicates the fraction of substitutions per site.
Figure 3.
Relations between phylogeny and some morphological characters.
A: Diagram of the major clades as in Fig. 2. Symbols refer only to taxa included in this study. B: Partial SSU gene tree of the “Lamproderma arcyrioides" clades derived by Bayesian inference of 549 nucleotide positions.
Figure 4.
Secondary structure and signatures.
A: Schematic secondary structure of the first part of the SSU rRNA (after [51]), encompassing the first 18 helices and part of the 19th, up to the first intron insertion site. Helices (paired strands) common to all domains of life are represented by black rectangles and numbered (E8_1, E10_1 are unique to eukaryotes), lengths are given next to the loops. Single-stranded segments are indicated by thin lines. For helices whose length is conserved, a 95% consensus is shown. Helices whose length is variable are in grey and the length range is given. Consensus sequences of the helices are shown in the Stockholm format (parentheses = stem, hyphens = loop, blank = no paring); lower-case characters indicate a base that is not present in all sequences of the group. B: Consensus sequences of the helix E8_1 of several Lamproderma clades, showing high variability and clade-specific sequence signatures. Lengths are more conservative than sequences.