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Climate change will affect numerous crops in the future; however, perennial crops, such as tea, are particularly vulnerable. Climate change will also strongly influence fungal pathogens. Here, we predict how future climatic conditions will impact tea and its associated pathogens. We collected data on the three most important fungal pathogens of tea ( Colletotrichum acutatum , Co. camelliae , and Exobasidium vexans ) and then modeled distributions of tea and these fungal pathogens using current and projected climates. The models show that baseline tea-growing areas will become unsuitable for Camellia sinensis var. sinensis (15 to 32% loss) and C. sinensis var. assamica (32 to 34% loss) by 2050. Although new areas will become more suitable for tea cultivation, existing and potentially new fungal pathogens will present challenges in these areas, and they are already under other land-use regimes. In addition, future climatic scenarios suitable range of fungal species and tea suitable cultivation (respectively in CSS and CSA) growing areas are Co. acutatum (44.30%; 31.05%), Co. camelliae (13.10%; 10.70%), and E. vexans (10.20%; 11.90%). Protecting global tea cultivation requires innovative approaches that consider fungal genomics as part and parcel of plant pathology., Competing Interests: Author SR was employed by N. Gene Solution of Natural Innovation, Kathmandu, Nepal. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Tibpromma, Dong, Ranjitkar, Schaefer, Karunarathna, Hyde, Jayawardena, Manawasinghe, Bebber, Promputtha, Xu, Mortimer and Sheng.)

Lactarius subg. Russularia is a large group of milkcaps occurring almost worldwide and dominant in many ecosystems. In this study we focus on new diversity, evolutionary relationships, divergence time, and origin of the subgenus. Six conifer symbionts are described as new to science: Lactarius atrii, L. aurantionitidus, L. dombangensis, L. flavigalactus, L. lachungensis, and L. sikkimensis. Species delimitation is assessed based on the concordance between morphological characteristics and an ITS phylogeny. Infrageneric relationships were studied using a phylogeny constructed from concatenated ITS-rpb2 data using Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian inference. Results show that species in this subgenus do not cluster together according to their geographic origin. Intercontinental sister relationships between Europe/Asia/North America are common but actual conspecificity is rare. This result suggests that allopatric speciation has played an important role within this subgenus. Only few morphological characteristics tend to be phylogenetically informative, with the most important being presence or absence of true cystidia and the pileipellis structure. Two datasets were generated in order to estimate the age of L. subg. Russularia. The results suggest the origin of L. subg. Russularia to be in the Mid Miocene period., (Copyright © 2016 British Mycological Society. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Two novel pyridino-cyathane diterpenoids, pyristriatins A and B (1 and 2), together with striatin C (3) were isolated from cultures of Cyathus cf. striatus, a basidiomycete that was found during a field trip in northern Thailand. The pyristriatins showed antimicrobial effects against Gram-positive bacteria and fungi. The isolation, structure elucidation, relative configuration, and biological and cytotoxic activity are described. Their structures were assigned by HRMS and NMR spectroscopy. We also describe the first 2D NMR assignment of striatin C. Pyristriatins A and B are the first cyathane natural products featuring a pyridine ring.

Bioassay-guided fractionation of antibacterial extracts from cultures of a basidiomycete from Northern Thailand, which represents a new species of the genus Deconica, yielded the terpenoid deconin A (1), whose structure was elucidated by spectral methods (NMR, HRMS) as a cuparenic/mevalonic acid conjugate. The absolute configuration of 1 was determined after saponification and comparison of specific rotations of the resulting cuparenic acid and mevalonolactone with authentic standards and literature data. Six minor congeners (2-7) were isolated and identified, and their antimicrobial and cytotoxic effects are reported. Compounds 1-4 are the first natural products featuring an unmodified mevalonic acid residue as a building block.

Phylogenetic relationships within the genus Cyathus (bird's nest fungi) were investigated with neighbor joining, maximum likelihood, weighted maximum parsimony and MrBayes analyses of ITS and LSU ribosomal DNA sequences datasets. Twenty-two taxa of Cyathus were used in the analyses based primarily on type and authentic specimens. The current infrageneric classification system of Brodie recognizes seven infrageneric groups based on morphological characters, including peridium plications and variations in peridium hair anatomy, peridiole structure and fruit-body color. These groups are not supported by molecular data. Instead the ITS and LSU datasets support recognition of three infrageneric groups herein named the ollum, pallidum and striatum groups. Morphological characters useful in distinguishing these groups include basidiospore size, fruit-body coloration and peridium anatomy. Cyathus africanus var. latisporus is considered a synonym of Cyathus jiayuguanensis, and a new combination Cyathus lanatus (Brodie) R.L. Zhao is proposed based on morphological and molecular data.

Lignin peroxidase and laccase gene-specific PCR primers were used to screen 38 diverse basidiomycetes and xylariaceous fungi. Lignin peroxidase gene-specific sequences were obtained for basidiomycetes only and were highly divergent. Possession of laccase genes was relatively widespread among basidiomycetes, and is shown for the first time in Xylariaceae. All sequences were highly conserved with no variation resulting in changes to predicted amino acid sequence. Those basidiomycetes shown to possess lignin peroxidase and laccase genes also produced the enzyme in vitro. Conversely none of the xylariaceous fungi shown to possess laccase genes were able to do so, whilst others decolorized Poly R yet yielded no PCR amplicons.