Phylogenetic studies of Terfezia pfeilii and Choiromyces echinulatus (Pezizales) support new genera for southern African truffles: Kalaharituber and Eremiomyces.

The ITS region including the 5.8S rRNA gene as well as the 5' end of the 28S rRNA gene of hypogeous Pezizaceae and Tuberaceae were studied to clarify the generic placement of two southern African desert truffles, Terfezia pfeilii and Choiromyces echinulatus. The results show that neither species belongs in the genus to which it has been assigned on the basis of morphological characters. As expected, two Choiromyces spp. grouped close to the representative of the Tuberaceae (Tuber melanosporum). However, C. echinulatus diverged from the other Choiromyces species and emerged near members of the genus Terfezia, being even closer to that genus than T. pfeilii. Two new genera and new species combinations, Kalaharituber gen. nov. with K. pfeilii (syn. T. pfeilii) comb. nov. and Eremiomyces gen. nov. with E. echinulatus (syn. C. echinulatus) comb. nov. are therefore introduced to accomodate these taxa. Both genera are closely related to Terfezia, and thus are placed in the Pezizaceae.