Phylogenetic Comparison between Italian and Worldwide Hericium Species (Agaricomycetes)

A broad literature concerns the genus Hericium, mainly regarding the medicinal properties of H. erinaceus. Congeneric species of H. erinaceus have been poorly investigated. We collected basidiomata of H. alpestre, H. coralloides and H. erinaceus in Italy and isolated the corresponding mycelia in pure culture. Analysis of the respective internal transcribed spacer regions confirmed the morphological identification of the strains. Internal transcribed spacer sequences from the Italian strains were phylogenetically compared along with 64 other sequences available from GenBank, the CBS Strain Database, and the European Nucleotide Archive (ENA) for the same Hericium species. Geographic origin and host plant species were cross-checked using the above data banks. Bayesian phylogenetic analysis produced a phylogram that permitted good discrimination among Hericium species. It provides an updated phylogeny within the genus Hericium and a better understanding of affinity among the species analyzed. The main Hericium clade includes the following: the H. erinaceus group and the H. alpestre/H. coralloides group, where the two species cluster separately. This study also allowed us to differentiate the H. erinaceus group on a biogeographical basis. The phylogenetic comparison further confirms the importance of a joint morphological-molecular approach to avoid misidentification and to guarantee the quality of strains for further chemical and medicinal characterization.