Molecular phylogeny of Acarosporaceae (Ascomycota) with focus on the proposed genus Polysporinopsis

The molecular phylogeny of Acarosporaceae with a focus on the recently proposed genus Polysporinopsis was investigated using maximum parsimony and Bayesian analyses, using nuITS-LSU and mtSSU rDNA sequence datasets. A well-supported monophyletic clade corresponding to Acarospora (including the type species A. schleicheri, A. fuscata, A. nitrophila, A. rugulosa, A. bullata, A. sinopica, A molybdina and A. peliscypha) was present in all analyses. Acarospora as currently delimited is not monophyletic; neither A. smaraydula nor A. badio-fusca belongs to the genus in the restricted sense. Polysporinopsis, which comprises three species previously classified in Acarospora (P. sinopica-type species, P. smaragdula, and P. rugulosa) is not a monophyletic group separate from Acarospora s. str. Acarospora sinopica and A. smaragdula are not closely related; A. sinopica belongs to Acarospora s. str:, but A. smaragdula is one of the most basal taxa currently known in Acarosporaceae. (c) 2006 The British Mycological Society. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved