title: A phylogenetic study of commercial Chinese truffles and their allies: taxonomic implications.
abstract: Phylogenetic relationships of commercial Chinese truffles and their allies were investigated mainly by morphological studies and analyses of the sequences of ITS regions of nuclear ribosomal DNA. Two species, Tuber indicum and T. himalayense, closely related to the European T. melanosporum (the Perigord Truffle), are recognized among commercial Chinese black truffles. Both T. pseudohimalayense and T. sinense should be regarded as synonyms of T. indicum. Tuber species producing excavated ascomata are not monophyletic, suggesting that excavation of ascomata may have evolved more than once, or evolved once during the evolution of truffle species and then was lost once during the evolution of Tuber species.
authors.affiliation: Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650204, Yunnan, China.
authors.forename: Li-fang
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Zhu L
authors.initials: ZL
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: D S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Song
mesh_terms: D001203:Ascomycota / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D002681:China; D004271:DNA, Fungal / Q000032:analysis; D021903:DNA, Ribosomal Spacer / Q000032:analysis; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016533:Mycological Typing Techniques; D010802:Phylogeny; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D004271:DNA, Fungal; D021903:DNA, Ribosomal Spacer