title: The placement of South African strains of Beauveria in a phylogeny inferred from rDNA ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 sequences.
abstract: This study aimed to confirm the identity of three strains of the entomopathogenic fungus Beauveria bassiana from South African soils and to investigate their phylogenetic relationship with non-indigenous strains from other geographic regions. Sequences of the rDNA ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 region of 23 strains were compared with the Genbank reference sequences of 20 other cosmopolitan strains. Fitch parsimony and neighbor-joining analyses of the ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 regions resolved the strains into two distinct clades and matched them to four species groups/lineages: Beauveria bassiana, B. cf. bassiana (pseudobassiana), B. brongniartii and B. caledonica. Two of the South African strains initially identified as B. bassiana grouped with B. caledonica, whereas the third strain was confirmed as B. bassiana. Because of the paucity of Genbank references for B. caledonica, we have designated the two South African B. caledonica strains as B. sp. aff. caledonica. Other reassignments included two strains from Norway, originally classified as B. bassiana, being grouped with B. brongniartii, and three of the B. brongniartii reference taxa from Brazil which were clearly placed in the B. bassiana clade. The study provides a first report of the presence of the B. caledonica lineage in Africa and confirms current Beauveria phylogenies inferred from molecular data.
authors.affiliation: School of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
authors.forename: Nainisha
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Morar-Bhana
authors.forename: Glynis Valerie
authors.initials: GV
authors.lastname: Cron
authors.forename: Vincent Myles
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Gray
authors.forename: Colin John
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Straker
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D052982:Beauveria / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D061046:Biological Control Agents; D004271:DNA, Fungal / Q000235:genetics*; D021901:DNA, Intergenic; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics; D007313:Insecta / Q000382:microbiology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016533:Mycological Typing Techniques; D010802:Phylogeny; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D013019:South Africa
chemical_list: D061046:Biological Control Agents; D004271:DNA, Fungal; D021901:DNA, Intergenic; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal