title: Phylogenetic congruence of parasitic smut fungi (Anthracoidea, Anthracoideaceae) and their host plants (Carex, Cyperaceae): Cospeciation or host-shift speciation?
abstract: •
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  Fahrenholz's rule states that common ancestors of extant parasites were parasites of the common ancestors of extant hosts. Consequently, parasite phylogeny should mirror host phylogeny. The smut fungi genus Anthracoidea (Anthracoideaceae) is mainly hosted by species of the genus Carex (Cyperaceae). Whether smut fungi phylogeny mirrors sedge phylogeny is still under debate.•
  
  
  METHODS
  The nuclear large subunit DNA region (LSU; 57 accessions) from 31 Anthracoidea species and the ITS, ETS, and trnL-F spacer-trnL intron complex from 41 Carex species were used to infer the phylogenetic history of parasites and their hosts using a maximum likelihood approach. Event-based and distance-based cophylogenetic methods were used to test the hypothesis of whether the phylogeny of smut fungi from the genus Anthracoidea matches the phylogeny of the sedge Carex species they host.•
  
  
  RESULTS
  Cophylogenetic reconstructions taking into account phylogenetic uncertainties based on event-based analyses demonstrated that the Anthracoidea phylogeny has significant topological congruence with the phylogeny of their Carex hosts. A distance-based test was also significant; therefore, the phylogenies of Anthracoide and Carex are partially congruent.•
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The phylogenetic congruence of Anthracoidea and Carex is partially based on smut fungi species being preferentially hosted by closely related sedges (host conservatism). In addition, many different events rather than only codivergence events are inferred. All of this evidence suggests that host-shift speciation rather than cospeciation seems to explain the cophylogenetic patterns of Anthracoidea and Carex.
authors.affiliation: Department of Integrative Ecology, Estación Biológica de Doñana (EBD-CSIC), Américo Vespucio sn 41092 Seville, Spain; Department of Plant Biology and Ecology, University of Seville, Av. Reina Mercedes sn 41012 Seville, Spain.
authors.forename: Marcial
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Escudero
mesh_terms: D001487:Basidiomycota / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D005075:Biological Evolution; D031255:Carex Plant / Q000235:genetics* / Q000382:microbiology; D049810:Genetic Speciation; D054884:Host-Pathogen Interactions; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D010802:Phylogeny; D010935:Plant Diseases / Q000382:microbiology*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
keywords: Anthracoidea; Anthracoideaceae; Carex; Cyperaceae; Jane; TreeMap; Ustilaginales; cophylogenetic patterns; sedge; smut fungi