SPECIES DIVERSITY OF BASIDIOMYCETES OF DISTRICT MALAKAND

Abstract

This dissertation communicates the results of a scientific endeavor undertaken for exploring the diversity of Basidiomycetous fungi of District Malakand, Pakistan. The District Malakand is an administrative unit of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, occupies 952 Km2 land within the geographical limits of 340 35’ to 340 66’ N and 710 65’ to 720 25’ E. Collections of mushrooms, rust and smut fungi were made from different area of Malakand District during the years 2013 and 2014. Field data of the specimens were recorded on the spot, proper photographs were taken and the collection was dried and preserved accordingly. More than 150 specimens of Basidiomycota were collected, comprising of 51 taxa belonging to 17 families. Distribution pattern of the groups shows that Agaricomycotina, the mushroom forming fungi, was the largest group represented by 39 species, Pucciniomycotina, the pathogenic rust fungi by 11 species and the smut fungi, Ustilaginomycotina, with a single species viz., Urocystis avenastri. All these fungi were characterized morpho-anatomically. The members of Agaricomycotina were also subjected to molecular identification, based on four gene regions viz., ITS, nrLSU, rpb2, tef-1α. Phylogenies of the analyzed taxa were elaborated with maximum likelihood, maximum parsimony and Bayesian analysis. Our research outputs includes one new species to science viz., Tulotoma ahmadii. Ten more taxa viz., Agaricus malakandensis nom. prov., A. minorus nom. prov., Cantharocybe pakistanicus nom. prov., Coprinopsis hispidus nom. prov., Hymenagaricus pakistaniensis nom. prov., Leucoagaricus badius nom. prov., La. sultanii nom. prov., Parasola lentiformis nom. prov., Pa. malakandensis nom. prov. and Psathyrella fusiformis nom. prov., are in the process of recognition / publication as new species. Furthermore, other 12 species viz., Agrocybe semiorbicularis, Conocybe papillata, Coprinellus curtus, Marasmiellus palmivorus, Pleurotus cystidiosus, Parasola lilatincta, Pa. schroeterii, Stropharia ambigua, Puccinia microspora, P. nakanishikii, Termitomyces umkowaan and Trametes lactinea are added as new records to the species list of the fungi of Pakistan. In Agaricomycotina, Agaricaceae proved to be the most frequent family represented by six genera (Agaricus, Hymenagaricus, Leucoagaricus, Leucocoprinus, Lycoperdon and Tulostoma). The second largest family was Psathyrellaceae with four genera viz., Coprinellus, Coprinopsis, Parasola and Psathyrella. Only two genera were recorded for each the family i.e., Omphalotaceae, Polyporaceae and Strophariaceae. Whereas families like Bolbitaceae, Hygrophoraceae, Hymenocheataceae, Geastraceae, Lyophyllaceae, Miripelaceae, Mirulaceae, Pleurotaceae and Pluteaceae were represented by a single genus each i.e., Conocybe, Cantharocybe, Phillanus, Geastrum, Termitomyces, Rigidoporus, Irpex, Pleurotus and Volvariella, respectively. Pucciniomycotina was represented by two families, Phragmidiaceae (Phragmidium) and Puccineaceae represented by (Puccinia, Uromyces). The Ustiloginomycotina was monotypic only represented by Urocystis avenastri. This study concluded that low altitude mountains, foothills and grassy lands of Malakand are rich in fungi species and needs exploration of other groups also. These findings have not only upgraded the existing knowledge of basidiomycetes Mycota from District Malakand but also established a sound baseline for future research and exploitation of fungi in Pakistan.