Polyphasic taxonomic revision of the Mucoraceae (Mucoromycotina)

毛霉科（Mucorales，Mucoromycotina）是一个古老的低等真菌类群，直到最近才被称为放线菌纲。它们主要包括快速生长的腐食性真菌，它们是各种潮湿有机材料的先驱，也是人类环境的永久组成部分。毛霉科的几个物种被应用于有机酸和酶的生物转化和生产。几个世纪以来，它们一直被用于传统的亚洲和非洲食物的发酵。另一方面，毛霉科可能导致危及生命的感染（毛霉菌病），主要发生在免疫力受损的患者中。在上个世纪，毛霉菌病的惊人增长已经被注意到，这可能是由于危险因素如糖尿病、长期使用类固醇或移植的增加。目前毛霉菌病是第三最常见的侵袭性真菌感染。早期和可靠的诊断对于积极的结果至关重要，因为这些感染通常具有戏剧性的过程和高死亡率。然而，该家族目前的分类是高度人为的，并且存在缺陷，阻碍了可靠的基于DNA的诊断。毛霉属是毛霉科中物种最丰富的属，具有多系性，多个形态种形成种复合体，种间界限不清。因此，该项目的目标是毛霉科的现代分类学修订和改进其诊断。新的分类将以多位点遗传、形态和生理特征以及交配试验为基础。通过基因组分析选择的新的系统发育标记将用于多位点系统发育，因为已知真菌的常规系统发育标记在毛霉科中具有旁系同源物。除了经典的形态学性状外，表型研究还包括与致病性相关的性状，如耐热性和二型性。这是第一次酵母状态将包括在毛霉目内的分类研究。将进行交配试验，以获得生物种属边界的指示。新的分类学概念将应用于一个公开的ITS数据库，以克服使用GenBank的BLAST搜索的分子物种鉴定的不足，并允许每个人都不需要专业知识的可靠鉴定。此外，将为所有临床相关种属及其兄弟种属生成MALDI-ToF图谱，以改进非DNA诊断。表型分类学研究结果将在一个关键点上实施，这将允许临床常规实验室在不使用分子技术的情况下正确鉴定致病性毛霉菌。二型性和耐热性的数据将提供关于毛霉科物种致病潜力的风险评估。

The Mucoraceae (Mucorales, Mucoromycotina) belong to a phylogenetically ancient group of lower fungi that until recently was referred to as zygomycetes. They mainly include fast growing saprotrophic fungi that are pioneers on all kinds of wet organic materials and a permanent part of the human environment. Several species of the Mucoraceae are applied for the biotransformation and the production of organic acids and enzymes. Since centuries they have been used for the fermentation of traditional Asian and African food. On the other hand Mucoraceae may cause life-threatening infections (mucormycoses) mostly in patients with impaired immunity. In the last century an alarming increase of mucormycoses has been noticed probably due to the gain of risk factors such as diabetes, the long-term use of steroids or transplantations. Currently mucormycoses are the third most frequent invasive fungal infections. An early and reliable diagnosis is crucial for a positive outcome because these infections generally have a dramatic course and a high rate of mortality. However, the current classification of this family is highly artificial and deficient hampering reliable DNA-based diagnostics. Mucor the species richest genus of the Mucoraceae is polyphyletic and several morphospecies form species complexes with unclear species boundaries. Therefore the goal of this project is a modern taxonomic revision of the Mucoraceae and the improvement of their diagnostics. The new classification will be based on multi-locus phylogenies, morphological and physiological characters as well as mating tests. New phylogenetic markers selected by genome analyses will be used for multi-locus phylogenies because the conventional phylogenetic markers for fungi are known to have paralogues in the Mucoraceae. Beside the classical morphological characters the phenotypic study will include characters with relevance for pathogenicity such as thermotolerance and dimorphism. For the first time the yeast state will be included in a taxonomic study within the Mucorales. Mating tests will be performed in order to obtain indications of biological species boundaries. The new taxonomic concepts will be applied in a publicly accessible ITS database to overcome the deficiencies of the molecular species identification using the BLAST search of GenBank and to allow a reliable identification by everybody without the need of expertise. Furthermore MALDI-ToF profiles will be generated for all clinically relevant species and their sibling species in order to improve also the non-DNA-based diagnostics. The phenotypic taxonomic findings will be implemented in a key that will allow clinical routine labs without access to molecular techniques a correct identification of pathogenic Mucorales. The data of dimorphism and thermotolerance will provide a risk assessment concerning the pathogenic potential of the Mucoraceae species.