An overview of the genus Glyphium and its phylogenetic placement in Patellariales.

Glyphium encompasses species with erect, carbonaceous ligulate to dolabrate ascomata that are strongly laterally compressed and dehisce along a longitudinal slit. The five currently recognized members of the genus are separated primarily by whether the ascospores disassociate into part-spores within the ascus. Glyphium has traditionally been placed in Mytilinidiaceae (Mytilinidiales, Pleosporomycetidae, Dothideomycetes). The present study, based on freshly collected material of G. elatum and G. grisonense, was initiated to determine the phylogenetic placement of Glyphium. Phylogenies inferred from the analysis of sequences of six gene regions (nuLSU, nuSSU, mtSSU, TEF1, RPB1, RPB2) derived from six accessions indicate that Glyphium belongs to Patellariales (Pleosporomycetidae, Dothideomycetes). Our phylogenies also support the phylogenetic relationship of Patellaria and Hysteropatella within this order. The nomenclatural history of Glyphium is summarized and a key to species is provided.

Phylogenetic placement of the ectomycorrhizal genus Cenococcum in Gloniaceae (Dothideomycetes).

Cenococcum is a genus of ectomycorrhizal Ascomycota that has a broad host range and geographic distribution. It is not known to produce either meiotic or mitotic spores and is known to exist only in the form of hyphae, sclerotia and host-colonized ectomycorrhizal root tips. Due to its lack of sexual and asexual spores and reproductive structures, it has proven difficult to incorporate into traditional classification within Ascomycota. Molecular phylogenetic studies of ribosomal RNA placed Cenococcum in Dothideomycetes, but the definitive identification of closely related taxa remained elusive. Here we report a phylogenetic analysis of five nuclear loci (SSU, LSU, TEF1, RPB1, RPB2) of Dothideomycetes that placed Cenococcum as a close relative of the genus Glonium of Gloniaceae (Pleosporomycetidae incertae sedis) with strong statistical support. Glonium is a genus of saprobic Dothideomycetes that produces darkly pigmented, carbonaceous, hysteriate apothecia and is not known to be biotrophic. Evolution of ectomycorhizae, Cenococcum and Dothideomycetes is discussed.

On the evolution of the Hysteriaceae and Mytilinidiaceae (Pleosporomycetidae, Dothideomycetes, Ascomycota) using four nuclear genes.

We present a molecular phylogenetic analysis for two families within the Pleosporomycetidae (Dothideomycetes), the Hysteriaceae, and the Mytilinidiaceae, using four nuclear genes, the ribosomal LSU and SSU, transcription elongation factor 1 alpha and the second largest RNA polymerase II subunit. Multigene phylogenies provide strong support for the monophyly of the Hysteriaceae and of the Mytilinidiaceae, both within the Pleosporomycetidae. However, sequence data also indicate that both families are not closely related within the subclass. Although core groups for many of the genera in the Hysteriaceae have been defined, Hysterium, Gloniopsis, and Hysterographium are polyphyletic, with affinities not premised on spore septation and pigmentation. Glonium is also polyphyletic, but along two highly divergent lines. The genus lies outside of the Hysteriaceae, and finds close affinities instead with the family Mytilinidiaceae, for which we propose Gloniaceae fam. nov. to accommodate the type, G. stellatum and related forms. The genus Psiloglonium is reinstated within the Hysteriaceae, with P. lineare, as type, to accommodate non-subiculate species, with apically obtuse didymospores. Farlowiella is removed from the Hysteriaceae, but remains within the Pleosporomycetidae. In contrast, despite divergent spore morphologies, the genera Mytilinidion and Lophium form a strongly supported clade, thus defining a highly monophyletic Mytilinidiaceae, adjacent to the Gloniaceae, for which we propose the Mytilinidiales ord. nov. The genus Ostreichnion, previously in the Mytilinidiaceae, is here transferred to the Hysteriaceae. It is concluded that the evolution of the hysterothecium occurred multiple times within the Pleosporomycetidae, and alone it is not a synapomorphic character state for the Hysteriaceae.