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An evidence-based consensus for the classification of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (Glomeromycota)

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Abstract

The publication of a large number of taxon names at all levels within the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (Glomeromycota) has resulted in conflicting systematic schemes and generated considerable confusion among biologists working with these important plant symbionts. A group of biologists with more than a century of collective experience in the systematics of Glomeromycota examined all available molecular–phylogenetic evidence within the framework of phylogenetic hypotheses, incorporating morphological characters when they were congruent. This study is the outcome, wherein the classification of Glomeromycota is revised by rejecting some new names on the grounds that they are founded in error and by synonymizing others that, while validly published, are not evidence-based. The proposed “consensus” will provide a framework for additional original research aimed at clarifying the evolutionary history of this important group of symbiotic fungi.

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Acknowledgments

The authors DR and HS would like to thank the Burgundy Regional Council and the Swiss National Science Foundation for the funding. JBM would like to thank the US National Science Foundation (grant DBI0650735) for the funding. Jessica Frank, Yael Tarkovsky (both West Virginia University), and David Stille (Ludwig-Maximilians-University) generated sequences for this publication. We thank Jan Jansa for providing specimens of the fungus originally determined as S. nigra and Jeffrey O. Dawson, University of Illinois, Champaign–Urbana, for collecting a sample from the Morrow plots from which D. heterogama (IL203) was cultured. We also acknowledge the help of the herbaria at Oregon State University (OSC) and Zurich (Z + ZT) for loan of type material. The technical support by Valérie Monfort-Pimet (International Bank for the Glomeromycota) is gratefully acknowledged. AS would like to thank the German Research Foundation for the funding (DFG grant Schu1203/8). SLS would like to thank the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnológico (CNPq) Brazil for a Research Assistantship (Process 302667/2009-1).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Université de Bourgogne/INRA, UMR 1347 Agroécologie, 17 rue Sully, BP 86510, 21000, Dijon, France

    Dirk Redecker & Herbert Stockinger

  2. Department Biology I, Genetics, Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, Großhaderner Straße 4, 82152, Planegg-Martinsried, Germany

    Arthur Schüßler

  3. Departamento de Ciências Naturais, Universidade Regional de Blumenau, Cx.P. 1507, 89012-900, Blumenau, SC, Brazil

    Sidney L. Stürmer

  4. West Virginia University, 1090 Agricultural Sciences Building, Morgantown, WV, 26506, USA

    Joseph B. Morton

  5. Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, 20A Inverleith Row, Edinburgh, EH3 5LR, UK

    Christopher Walker

  6. School of Earth Sciences and Environment, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA, 6009, Australia

    Christopher Walker

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  1. Dirk Redecker
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  2. Arthur Schüßler
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  3. Herbert Stockinger
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  4. Sidney L. Stürmer
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  5. Joseph B. Morton
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  6. Christopher Walker
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Correspondence to Dirk Redecker.

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Redecker, D., Schüßler, A., Stockinger, H. et al. An evidence-based consensus for the classification of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (Glomeromycota). Mycorrhiza 23, 515–531 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00572-013-0486-y

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