Vol. 90, No. 5, pp. 846853.
Cryptic species in the Puccinia monoica
Barbara A. Roy
Geobotanical Institute, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), 8044 Zürich, Switzerland
Detlev R. Vogler
Conservation Genetics Laboratory, Biology Department, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, California, USA 94132
Thomas D. Bruns and Timothy M. Szaro
Department of Plant
and Microbial Biology, University of California, Berkeley,
California, USA 94720
The Puccinia monoica complex is an enigmatic
group of rust fungi. They are flower mimics, and they greatly
reduce host reproduction and survival. These fungi are relatively
common, attacking approximately 960 species in 11 genera of
crucifers as well as at least five genera of grasses. In modern
taxonomic treatments the Puccinia monoica complex is
treated as four species that are differentiated by the number of
spore states in their life cycles. However, other systematic
treatments have divided the group into species or forms based on
host association. Within the species based on spore state there is
morphological variation, but it has not been readily assignable to
either host species or geographic area. We used DNA sequencing and
phylogenetic analysis to determine whether there are cryptic
species in this group that are not evident when only morphology is
used. We sequenced the nuclear rDNA region containing the internal
transcribed spacers (ITS-1 + 5.8S gene + ITS-2) of
isolates from different hosts. Our results indicate that there are
cryptic species in the Puccinia monoica complex, and that species in this group cannot be identified strictly by life cycle stage.
Keywords: Arabis, mimicry, molecular
phylogeny, Puccinia thlaspeos, rust fungi, Tranzschels
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