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Cryptic speciation in Orbilia xanthostigma and O. leucostigma (Orbiliomycetes): an aggregate with worldwide distribution

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Abstract

Orbilia xanthostigma, with golden yellow to yellow-orange apothecia and O. leucostigma, with white to very pale rose-lilaceous apothecia, were described by E.M. Fries over 200 years ago. Each of the two taxa, which are not easy to interpret because type material is lacking, was proposed in the past as lectotype of the genus Orbilia. In the here presented circumscription, which follows the current usage, O. xanthostigma is among the most frequently recorded species of the genus, whereas O. leucostigma appears to be much less common. Both grow gregariously on decorticated hygric gymno- and angiosperm wood or rarely bark and show a worldwide distribution. They are characterised by minute, strongly curved, warted ascospores and a dicranidion-like anamorph. Except for apothecial colour, there are no other notable morphological differences between them, either in the teleomorph (asci, ascospores, paraphyses) or anamorph (conidiophores, conidia). Because of their strong similarities, the two taxa have often been treated as infraspecific variants (subspecies, varieties) of a single species or even as synonyms. In order to overcome the ambiguities associated with the two names, O. delicatula, a name proposed by P.A. Karsten for a collection with golden yellow apothecia, was suggested by B. Spooner as a replacement name for them. The present study reveals unexpectedly high ITS and LSU variation within a morphologically extremely homogeneous group, representing over 16 more or less invariable genotypes whenever more than one sample with a sequence was available. ITS and LSU rDNA data from European (Luxembourg, Germany, Ukraine) and Macaronesian (Tenerife) collections suggest that the two colour variants represent two distinct species with a 16.5% ITS and 3.5% LSU D1–D2 distance, but very low infraspecific variation (0.2% ITS, 0% LSU). A sample with scattered yellow apothecia from Luxembourg on a xeric branch deviates from typical European-Macaronesian O. xanthostigma by 4% (ITS) and 0.7% (LSU). Further available sequences from samples from Asia, New Zealand and North America with mainly yellow apothecia clustered in various other clades that represent further distinct genotypes. In the absence of morphological characteristics, none of these genotypes are given names pending further investigation. Only two of these genotypes are sufficiently distinct to be recognised morphologically: O. aureocrenulata from tropical, Middle and South America, with golden yellow apothecia with a crenulate margin and prominent stipe, and O. xanthoflexa from temperate, northeastern North America with yellow sessile apothecia with a smooth margin and larger, less curved, smooth-walled ascospores.

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Data availability

The sequences generated in this study are available in the NCBI GenBank (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) under the accession numbers given in the text.

Code availability

Not applicable.

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Acknowledgements

G. Hagedorn, D. Haelewaters and E. Kuhnert are thanked for generating sequences of Orbilia leucostigma (H.B. 6810c = CBS 116212), O. cf. xanthostigma (D.H. bhi-F037) and O. aureocrenulata (H.B. 9672), respectively. We are grateful to Guy Marson who obtained the first sequences of European O. xanthostigma and demonstrated that mixtures of yellow and white apothecia have very different rDNA. Anders Dahlberg, Igor Kazartsev, Ariana Kubart and Eeva Terhonen are thanked for data of their environmental isolates and Bin Liu for morphological data of Asian specimens. Luis Quijada thanks the support of the Farlow Fellowship, the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University and the Harvard University Herbaria.

Funding

V. Rodriquez was supported by an undergraduate research grant from Harvard University under the supervision of D. Pfister and R. Healy.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Blaihofstr. 42, 72074, Tübingen, Germany

    Hans-Otto Baral & Evi Weber

  2. Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research, Private Bag 92170, Auckland, 1142, New Zealand

    Peter Johnston

  3. Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University Herbaria, 22 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA

    Luis Quijada, Donald H. Pfister, Katherine F. LoBuglio & Valentina Rodriguez

  4. Department of Plant Biology, University of Minnesota, St Paul, MN, 55108, USA

    Rosanne Healy

Authors
  1. Hans-Otto Baral
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  8. Evi Weber
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Contributions

Conceptualisation: H.O. Baral, E. Weber.

Sequencing: R. Healy, P. Johnston, K. LoBuglio, L. Quijada.

Molecularbiological analyses: Hans-Otto Baral, R. Healy.

Distance analyses: H.O. Baral.

TEM: R. Healy.

Culturing and anamorph documentation: K. LoBuglio, D. Pfister, V. Rodriguez, R. Healy, P. Johnston.

Figure layout: H.O. Baral, E. Weber.

Writing — original draft preparation: H.O. Baral.

Writing — review and editing: H.O. Baral, R. Healy, P. Johnston, D. Pfister, L. Quijada, E. Weber.

Collection of fungal material: H.O. Baral, R. Healy, P. Johnston, K. LoBuglio, D. Pfister, L. Quijada, V. Rodriguez, E. Weber.

Supervision: H.O. Baral, E. Weber, Don Pfister (TEM).

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hans-Otto Baral.

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Baral, HO., Johnston, P., Quijada, L. et al. Cryptic speciation in Orbilia xanthostigma and O. leucostigma (Orbiliomycetes): an aggregate with worldwide distribution. Mycol Progress 20, 1503–1537 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11557-021-01718-4

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