Ecological speciation of Japanese hedgehog mushroom: Hydnum subalpinum sp. nov. is distinguished from its sister species H. repando-orientale by means of integrative taxonomy

Hydnum repando-orientale is an East Asian species closely related to H. boreorepandum and repandum; all three produce edible mushrooms. We identified two ecological groups of in Japan: a temperate group occurring Fagaceae-dominated forest at < 1200 m a.s.l. (ROF) subalpine coniferous highland > 1900 (ROC). re-examined the taxonomy using integrative approaches. Phylogenies other were inferred from internal transcribed spacer (ITS) gene portions encoding large subunit nc rRNA (LSU), translation elongation factor-1 alpha (TEF1), RNA polymerase II largest (RPB1), second-largest (RPB2). The concatenated phylogenetic tree separated into well-supported sister clades. Also, delimitations based on topological congruence (GCPSR) coalescent models (GMYC BP&P) supported separate groups. Morphological analysis showed that ROC specimens had significantly larger basidiospores, compared with ROF specimens. Mon-mon mating tests six ROF, ROC, strains each independent incompatible groups, whereas one strain compatibility both populations. Based these results, we defined as new species, subalpinum. Because subalpinum have smaller genetic divergence rDNA maintain slight sexual compatibility, they may recently speciated Asia.