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Resolving taxonomic and phylogenetic incongruence within the species Ceratocystiopsis minuta

     ¹ University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, V6T1Z4, Canada
² Korea University, Seoul, Korea
³ University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba
⁴ Department of Microbiology, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, R3T 2N2, Canada
⁵ National Institute of Biological Resources, Incheon
⁶ Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki
⁷ Universtiy of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z4, Canada

Ceratocystiopsis minuta (Siemaszko) H.P. Upadhyay & W.B. Kendr., originally isolated in Poland, is the type species of the genus Ceratocystiopsis H.P. Upadhyay & W.B. Kendr. Species in this genus are characterized by dark perithecia with short conical beaks, usually with convergent ostiolar hyphae and dark ascocarps, and by falcate or lunate ascospores. Work within the genus is complicated by historical inconsistencies, errors in strain identification and the absence of a holotype specimen. We used sequence data from the β-tubulin gene, internal transcribed spacer and large subunit regions of ribosomal DNA to phylogenetically characterize 23 putative strains of Cop. minuta from Europe, Japan and North America, as well as strains from other species in the genus Ceratocystiopsis. Our results show that Cop. minuta strains from Europe and Japan are monophyletic, whereas those from North American are polyphyletic and likely misidentified. This suggests that other research groups have used as Cop. minuta either misidentified strains or strains that were only distantly related to those obtained from Poland. Further, our multi-gene phylogenetic tree also shows that Cop. minuta strains from Europe and Japan can potentially be segregated into 3 different clades. This suggests the presence of several phylogenetic species that are morphologically similar to Cop. minuta, and we anticipate that this species complex will challenge researchers until such relationships are resolved.

Key words: bark beetles, β-tubulin, phylogeny, rDNA, taxonomic confusion