Puccinia hemerocallidis and P. funkiae resemble each other morphologically; however, they are biologically and taxonomically distinct, with telia of the former being restricted to species of Hemerocallis and the latter to Hosta species. However, both fungi share a macrocyclic and heteroecious life cycle with Patrinia villosa as the spermogonial and aecial host. An additional microcyclic rust fungus, P. patriniae, is also known on P. villosa. This microcyclic fungus is similar to the two macrocyclic fungi in its telial structure and teliospore morphology. These similarities in morphology and host relationships suggest the three fungi may also share a close evolutionary relationship. To determine the phylogenetic relationships of the three species, a portion of the nuclear ribosomal DNA repeat encoding the ITS and 5.8S subunit regions was amplified by PCR, sequenced, and analyzed. The resulting phylogenetic trees showed that P. hemerocallidis and P. funkiae share a recent common ancestor and that P. patriniae is closely allied with P. hemerocallidis. The results suggest a possible evolutionary derivation of microcyclic P. patriniae from macrocyclic heteroecious P. hemerocallidis, which fits the evolutionary interpretation of correlated species known as Tranzschel's law.

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