AFLP molecular characterizations of some Saccobolus species (Ascomycota, Pezizales)

Amplified restriction fragment length polymorphisms (AFLP) were used to assess the genetic diversity among species and isolates of the genus Saccobolus. Monosporic strains of five Saccobolus species were used throughout. The dendrogram obtained from the analysis of grouping (UPGMA) showed four groups of species. The ordination of isolates through the principal coordinates method exhibited nearly the same relations between isolates as the phenogram. Analysis of six samples identified as Saccobolus versicolor using morphological characters indicated the same diagnostic fingerprints as S. verrucisporus with the primer combinations tested. The isolates identified as S. versicolor may represent an intraspecific variant of S. verrucisporus. The results support the use of AFLP markers to delimit Saccobolus species. This methodology constitutes an additional tool to study the taxonomy of the genus, which has previously used only morphological characters.