New Species of Whitish Truffle, Tuber Lithocarpii Sp. Nov., Belonging to the Puberulum Clade, Discovered Under Lithocarpus Konishii in Taiwan

Abstract BackgroundDiversity of Tuber species in Taiwan is still poorly known, with only T. formosanum form Melanosporum clade, T. furfuraceum from Rufum clade and T. elevatireticulatum from Puberulum clade were recorded in recent 30 years. During our survey of hypogenous fungi in Taiwan, another whitish truffle was collected from roots of Lithocarpus konishii along a forest road in southern Taiwan in January 2018.ResultsThe whitish truffle is herein described as a new species Tuber lithocarpii, which is appeared to differ from most closely related taxon by its small ascomata size, reddish-brown gleba color, small and globose ascospores size with large pentagonal or irregular marbled reticulated ornamentation. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that T. lithocarpii formed a monophyletic clade within Puberulum clade and placed sister to the Thai whitish truffle T.thailandicum with strong branching support.ConclusionsTuber lithocarpii, which is appeared to differ from the previous recorded species based on morphological and phylogenetic evidences. This is an important and encouraging discovery in Taiwan as to facilitate cognition of Asian truffles, the following development of biotechnological applications and truffle cultivation of native species.