Revisão do gênero Blumenavia Möller (Phallales): integração de dados morfológicos e moleculares

Abstract

Phallales is the order represented by fungi called stinkhorns that use attractive odors and an adhesive gleba to propagate its spores through dispersing agents, mainly arthropods. The genus Blumenavia is a gasteroid fungi. This genus is included in the family Clathraceae. Currently, based on only in morphological data, two species are considered for the genus: Blumenavia rhacodes and B. angolensis, whose type localities are Brazil and Africa, respectively. Two other species, described previously, were considered synonymous by some authors: Blumenavia toribiotalpaensis originally described for Mexico and synonimized with B. rhacodes and B. usambarensis synonimized with B. angolensis. It was verified the inconsistency of the morphological characters used for the delimitation of the species and the scarcity of molecular data, especially of the ITS region. With the objective of reviewing and identify informative characters of the genus and the best species delimitation, the present work was conducted by comparative morphological and molecular studies using ITS, LSU, ATP6, RPB2 and TEF1α sequences from 32 collections from several herbaria, as well a specimen collected from the state of Ceará-BR. For the morphological description of these specimens were analyzed macro and microstructures (rhizomorph, volva, columns, glebiferous and spores) in 5% KOH, Melzer Reagent, 1% Congo Red and Cotton Blue. Seven species for this genus was delimited based on the concatenated results (morphological and molecular, with 42 new sequences generated). Blumenavia rhacodes and B. angolensis manteined, B. usambarensis and B. toribiotalpaensis were reconsidered here, and three new species are proposed for the genus. The characters: arms color and thickness, as well as the presence of grooves on their faces; shape and arrangement of glebifers; size and shape of basidiospores; hyphae of apical exoperium and criytals in peridium layers were defined as relevant for segregation and delimitation of species within the genus.