Towards the global phylogeny of the ectomycorrhizal genus Cortinarius (Basidiomycetes, Agaricales)

丝膜菌作为真菌菌根共生体在森林生态系统中发挥着重要作用。形态学和分子生物学的研究，在这个分类学上非常困难的属鳃蘑菇超过2000描述的物种集中在北方半球的类群，特别是来自欧洲和北美。然而，初步的分子研究表明，南半球和亚洲的物种是至关重要的一个有效的重建系统发育关系的丝膜菌。因此，拟议的研究项目涉及原始形态和分子分析的创新组合，包括中美洲，南半球和亚洲Cortinarius物种的代表性采样。形态学分析将包括比较宏观形态学、解剖学和超微结构检查。分子分析将包括rDNA（核大亚基，ITS，以及选定物种的IGS）的测序，为了解析更高的亚属群，还包括蛋白质编码DNA（ATP 6和RPB 2基因），以及使用广泛的先进技术进行系统发育分析。形态，生态和化学数据（色素化学）将是我们的系统发育假说的解释基础。该项目的结果将是一个新的，植物遗传学为导向的分类系统的Cortinarius的基础，并有助于更好地了解这个真菌组的系统发育关系和进化过程，包括不同地理区域之间的物种形成率的变化和假设的基础类群，替代物种，生态亚种和分布模式在全球范围内。

Species of Cortinarius play a key role as fungal mycorrhizal symbionts in forest ecosystems all over the world. Morphological and molecular studies in this taxonomically highly difficult genus of gilled mushrooms with more than 2000 described species have focused on northern hemispheric taxa, particularly from Europe and North America. Preliminary molecular studies, however, indicate that the southern hemispheric and Asian species are crucial for a valid reconstruction of the phylogenetic relationships in Cortinarius. The proposed research project therefore involves an innovative combination of original morphological and molecular analyses including a representative sampling of Central American, southern hemispheric and Asian Cortinarius species. The morphological analyses will comprise comparative macromorphological, anatomical, and ultrastructural examinations. The molecular analyses will include sequencing of rDNA (nuclear large subunit, ITS, and also IGS of selected species) and, in order to resolve higher subgeneric groups, also protein-coding DNA (ATP6 and RPB2 genes), and phylogenetic analyses using a broad spectrum of advanced techniques. Morphological, ecological, and chemical data (pigment chemistry) will be the base for the interpretation of our phylogenetic hypotheses. Results of this project will be the fundament of a new, phylogenetically oriented classification system for the genus Cortinarius and contribute to a better understanding of the phylogenetic relationships and evolutionary processes in this fungal group, including variation in speciation rates among different geographical regions and hypotheses about basal taxa, vicarious species, ecological subspecies and distributional patterns in a worldwide context.