Yu-Lian Wei

Polypores (Basidiomycota) from Qin Mts. in Shaanxi Province, Central China

133 species of polypores were identified based mostly on collections from Qin Mts. of southern Shaanxi Province, central China. A checklist of the polypores with substrate and collecting data is supplied. Two new species, Polyporus rhododendri Y.C. Dai & H.S. Yuan and Postia qinensis Y.C. Dai & Y.L. Wei, are described and illustrated. The former is an elegant species growing on Rhododendron, and it has almost sessile basidiocarps; microscopically it is characterized by fusiform basidiospores. The latter is characterized by white, soft, resupinate to effused-reflexed basidiocarps, abundant gloeocystidia, cylindric to slightly allantoid basidiospores.

Phylogenetic analysis of ligninolytic peroxidases: preliminary insights into the alternation of white-rot and brown-rot fungi in their lineage

White-rot and brown-rot fungi employ different mechanisms to degrade lignocellulose. These fungi are not monophyletic and even alternate in their common lineage. To explore the reason for this, seventy-six ligninolytic peroxidases (LPs), including 14 sequences newly identified from available basidiomycetous whole-genome and EST databases in this study, were utilized for phylogenetic and selective pressure analyses. We demonstrate that LPs were subjected to the mixed process of concerted and birth-and-death evolution. After the duplication events of original LPs, various LP types may originate from mutation events of several key residues driven by positive selection, which may change LP types and even rot types in a small fraction of wood-decaying fungi. Our findings provide preliminary insights into the cause for the alternation of the two fungal rot types within the same lineage.