title: Uniting Tricholoma sulphureum and T. bufonium.
abstract: The taxonomic status and relationship of Tricholoma sulphureum and the similar T. bufonium were investigated using different sets of characters. These included morphological data on fruit bodies, ecological and chorological data, and analysis of the sequence data obtained for the ITS of basidiomes of different ecological and geographic origin. Moreover, the ectomycorrhizas formed by T. bufonium on Abies alba and Quercus sp. were characterised, and anatomical features compared with those of T. sulphureum mycorrhizas on coniferous and broad-leaved host trees. Our results revealed extensive ITS variation in members of the T. sulphureum group, but this variation was not correlated with morphology, ecology, or geographical distribution. We conclude that T. bufonium cannot be maintained as an autonomous taxon and should be treated as an infraspecific variant of T. sulphureum.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze Ambientali, Università dell'Aquila, Via Vetoio, Loc Coppito, I-67100 L'Aquila, Italy. comandin@univaq.it
authors.forename: Ornella
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Comandini
authors.forename: Ingeborg
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Haug
authors.forename: Andrea C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Rinaldi
authors.forename: Thomas W
authors.initials: TW
authors.lastname: Kuyper
mesh_terms: D028202:Abies; D001483:Base Sequence; D001487:Basidiomycota / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D004271:DNA, Fungal / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D021903:DNA, Ribosomal Spacer / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D038821:Mycorrhizae / Q000235:genetics / Q000648:ultrastructure; D010802:Phylogeny; D010935:Plant Diseases / Q000382:microbiology*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D004271:DNA, Fungal; D021903:DNA, Ribosomal Spacer