title: Global diversity of the Ganoderma lucidum complex (Ganodermataceae, Polyporales) inferred from morphology and multilocus phylogeny.
abstract: Species of the Ganoderma lucidum complex are used in many types of health products. However, the taxonomy of this complex has long been chaotic, thus limiting its uses. In the present study, 32 collections of the complex from Asia, Europe and North America were analyzed from both morphological and molecular phylogenetic perspectives. The combined dataset, including an outgroup, comprised 33 ITS, 24 tef1α, 24 rpb1 and 21 rpb2 sequences, of which 19 ITS, 20 tef1α, 20 rpb1 and 17 rpb2 sequences were newly generated. A total of 13 species of the complex were recovered in the multilocus phylogeny. These 13 species were not strongly supported as a single monophyletic lineage, and were further grouped into three lineages that cannot be defined by their geographic distributions. Clade A comprised Ganoderma curtisii, Ganoderma flexipes, Ganoderma lingzhi, Ganoderma multipileum, Ganoderma resinaceum, Ganoderma sessile, Ganoderma sichuanense and Ganoderma tropicum, Clade B comprised G. lucidum, Ganoderma oregonense and Ganoderma tsugae, and Clade C comprised Ganoderma boninense and Ganoderma zonatum. A dichotomous key to the 13 species is provided, and their key morphological characters from context, pores, cuticle cells and basidiospores are presented in a table. The taxonomic positions of these species are briefly discussed. Noteworthy, the epitypification of G. sichuanense is rejected.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Forest and Soil Ecology, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110164, China.
authors.forename: Li-Wei
authors.initials: LW
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Forest and Soil Ecology, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110164, China.
authors.forename: Yun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.affiliation: Department of Botany, National Museum of Natural Science, Taichung 404, Taiwan, China.
authors.forename: Sheng-Hua
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Biology Centre of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Branišovská 31, CZ-370 05 České Budějovice, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Josef
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Vlasák
authors.affiliation: The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station Valley Laboratory, 153 Cook Hill Road, Windsor, CT 06095, USA.
authors.forename: De-Wei
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Forest and Soil Ecology, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110164, China.
authors.forename: Meng-Jie
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Forest and Soil Ecology, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110164, China. Electronic address: yuchengd@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Yu-Cheng
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Dai
mesh_terms: D005060:Europe; D032902:Ganoderma / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics; D009656:North America; D010802:Phylogeny; D010946:Plants, Medicinal / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics; D020072:Polyporales / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics*
keywords: ITS; Polypore; Taxonomy; rpb1; rpb2; tef1α