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Dermolomais traditionally known as a small genus of agarics classified in the familyTricholomataceae. This study implemented a multilocus phylogeny of six DNA regions to recognize phylogenetic species within the genus. The species concept is reinforced by observations of well-defined morphological characters enhanced by long term sampling effort in Europe and North America. Thirty EuropeanDermolomaspecies are described, including 16 new species from Europe and three from North American. These species are classified into two subgenera morphologically distinguished by spores with positive or negative amyloid reaction. A new genusNeodermolomais introduced for theDermoloma-like speciesN. campestre. Localized or continental-scale species endemicity was confirmed based on studied material, but more inclusive phylogenetic clustering supported a mixture of North American species among the European clades. Of the 22 names validly published from Europe prior to this study, 11 could be assigned to well-definedDermolomaspecies recognized here. Of the remaining 11 names, two were considered representingDermolomaspecies not recorded since their description, and nine were established as later synonyms of other species. Morphological studies ofDermolomaare challenging due to the relatively low number of characters suitable for identification of species. The majority of morphological characters showed continuous variation with high overlap throughout the genus. For this reason, species identification requires an awareness of morphological variability within species, and multiple distinguishing characters need to be combined, and furthermore, often a barcode sequence is needed for a certain identification. Stable isotope analysis inDermolomaof δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N revealed an ecological signature similar to known CHEGD fungi, i.e.ClavariaceaeandHygrocybes.l. This indicates thatDermolomaspecies are biotrophic but neither ectomycorrhizal nor saprotrophic and may form mutualistic root endophytic associations with vascular plants. 

The Ordway-Swisher Biological Station (OSBS) is a 38-km2 reserve owned by the University of Florida and is part of the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON). The reserve contains several iconic Florida habitats, such as sandhill, mesic hammock, and scrubby flatwoods. While plants and animals have been extensively studied at OSBS, the fungi remain poorly known. Fungal inventories are critical to increase knowledge of both fungal diversity and species ranges, and thus to provide foundational data for a wide array of applications in ecology and resource management. Here, we present the results of a nine-year effort to collect, preserve, and DNA barcode the macrofungi at OSBS. This effort generated >1200 vouchered specimens and 984 ITS rDNA sequences, representing more than 546 species. Our sampling was dominated by Basidiomycota and revealed a high diversity of symbiotic ectomycorrhizal fungi, particularly species of Amanita, Cortinarius, and Russula. Sampling curves and both Chao1 and Jacknife1 richness estimators suggest that our DNA barcoding efforts captured only about half of the macrofungi species and that a more complete inventory would detect 897–1177 macrofungi species at OSBS. Our sampling found more species of macrofungi at OSBS than the known number of vertebrate animal species at the reserve and our estimates also suggest that there are likely more macrofungi species than plant species at OSBS. This study is the first comprehensive macrofungi inventory within a NEON site and highlights the importance of long-term monitoring to provide novel data on fungal diversity, community structure, conservation, biogeography, and taxonomy. 

Trichodermais a cosmopolitan genus with diverse lifestyles and nutritional modes, including mycotrophy, saprophytism, and endophytism. Previous research has reported greater metabolic gene repertoires in endophytic fungal species compared to closely-related non-endophytes. However, the extent of this ecological trend and its underlying mechanisms are unclear. Some endophytic fungi may also be mycotrophs and have one or more mycoparasitism mechanisms. Mycotrophic endophytes are prominent in certain genera likeTrichoderma, therefore, the mechanisms that enable these fungi to colonize both living plants and fungi may be the result of expanded metabolic gene repertoires. Our objective was to determine what, if any, genomic features are overrepresented in endophytic fungi genomes in order to undercover the genomic underpinning of the fungal endophytic lifestyle. Here we compared metabolic gene cluster and mycoparasitism gene diversity across a dataset of thirty-eightTrichodermagenomes representing the full breadth of environmentalTrichoderma’s diverse lifestyles and nutritional modes. We generated four newTrichoderma endophyticumgenomes to improve the sampling of endophytic isolates from this genus. As predicted, endophyticTrichodermagenomes contained, on average, more total biosynthetic and degradative gene clusters than non-endophytic isolates, suggesting that the ability to create/modify a diversity of metabolites potential is beneficial or necessary to the endophytic fungi. Still, once the phylogenetic signal was taken in consideration, no particular class of metabolic gene cluster was independently associated with theTrichodermaendophytic lifestyle. Several mycoparasitism genes, but no chitinase genes, were associated with endophyticTrichodermagenomes. Most genomic differences betweenTrichodermalifestyles and nutritional modes are difficult to disentangle from phylogenetic divergences among species, suggesting thatTrichodermagenomes maybe particularly well-equipped for lifestyle plasticity. We also consider the role of endophytism in diversifying secondary metabolism after identifying the horizontal transfer of the ergot alkaloid gene cluster toTrichoderma.