Multigene phylogenetic analyses of the Thelonectria coronata and T. veuillotiana species complexes

Thelonectria is a recently established genus of common and ubiquitous fungi on woody hosts, previously placed in the genus Neonectria. Thelonectria coronata and T. veuillotiana occur sympatrically in several geographical areas in tropical, subtropical, and temperate regions. Previous taxonomic studies including T. coronata and T. veuillotiana suggested these fungi could represent species complexes; however, the morphological features used to define species exhibited few differences useful for testing this hypothesis. In order to assess the status of T. coronata and T. veuillotiana, phylogenetic analyses of six genomic regions were combined with a morphological examination of specimens. A multigene phylogeny reconstructed using Maximum Parsimony, Maximum Likelihood, and Bayesian approaches identified five phylogenetic groups in T. coronata and six in T. veuillotiana. As is common for cryptic species, unequivocal diagnostic morphological characters could not be identified; however, averag...