Boletaceae research projects
To a modern taxonomy of Leccinum: molecules, morphology and population biology
Henk C. den Bakker, Dr. M.C. Noordeloos, Dr. B. Gravendeel – NHN, Leiden; Dr. Th.W.M. Kuijper – Wageningen University.
For the genus Leccinum (
Boletaceae) the last decades of the past century resulted in a tremendous growth of
species described: Watling described 13 species for Europe in 1970 in his British Fungus
Flora, Engel came up with 27 in 1983 and the French Lannoy & Estades enumerate 36
species in their monograph of 1995. Is this number of species in concordance with what can
be seen as species in nature, or do we have several ‘morphologically defined’
species that are merely phenotypes or aberrations such as albinism and melanism of a small
number of taxa? One of the aims of this project is to come to a revision of Leccinum
for the Flora Agaricina Neerlandica that is based on more than morphology alone. First we
want to know how the species of the so far only morphologically defined section Scabra
occurring in Europe have evolved. A phylogeny based on sequences of the nrDNA
ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 region is currently reconstructed for this. A second step will be to focus
on population genetics of several species within well supported clades in this phylogeny
to get an idea of reproductively isolated populations and their phylogeography.
Entolomataceae research projects
The phylogeny of genus Entoloma
Delia L.V. Co, Dr. M.E. Noordeloos, Dr. S.Draisma – NHN Leiden
The basidiomycete genus Entoloma is comprised of more than 1,500 species
occuring worldwide in boreal to tropical ecosystems. Its fruiting bodies show a
remarkable range from delicate pleurotoid (shell-like) to large fleshy
tricholomatoid but all possess pink spores that are angular in various ways.
Most species are saprotrophic on humus, some on wood and a growing number are
being discovered to be ectomycorrhizal. My aim is to study the infrageneric
phylogeny of this genus. Controversial taxa that, by having a certain
combination of characters, straddles the delimitation between two subgenera will
be significant in the sampling. Newly discovered or little known species from
southern temperate, and, tropical regions will be of great interest as well. The
infrageneric classification was developed largely in the northern temperate
regions, in the absence of these species. They will thus test it. The wide
geographic sampling may also be important in getting accurate phylogenetic
signal and biogeographic insights.
Currently, I am busy with the construction of a skeleton phylogeny of the
family. It is necessary to address the monophyly of the family Entolomataceae,
the monophyly of Entoloma, (some taxa show affinities to another genus,
Rhodocybe) and, most importantly, the monophyly and relationships of the
subgenera of Entoloma. The skeleton phylogeny will be the basis of the
in-depth infrageneric studies.
(Machiel Noordeloos' Entoloma website)