This has urged mycologists to extend their studies on large samples of individuals throughout the world, in order to establish robust phylogenies from #TGF-beta inhibitor randurls[1|1|,|CHEM1|]# the congruence of genealogies based on appropriately polymorphic gene sequences and to test hypotheses regarding the processes responsible for distribution patterns. Thus, the notion of phylogenetic species recognition and phylogeography was introduced as a powerful method for answering questions about distribution in an evolutionary context [34–36]. Phylogeography or phylogenetic biogeography emerge as the field that aims to understand the processes

shaping geographic distributions of lineages using genealogies of populations

and genes [37]. It is therefore, particularly important for genera like Beauveria for which only a few studies exist on strain variability and their geographic distribution and phylogenetic origins [6, 13, 16, 17, 20]. This work was undertaken to serve a dual purpose. Firstly, to further assess the usefulness of mtDNA sequences as species diagnostic tool, alone or in combination with the more commonly studied rRNA gene sequences (ITS), and secondly to infer relationships among a large population of Beauveria species and strains from different geographic origins, habitats and insect hosts. To achieve these targets we have analyzed the complete mt genomes of BI2536 B. bassiana and B. brongniartii, selected the two most variable intergenic selleck screening library regions and constructed the phylogenetic relationships of a number of isolates for determining their biogeographic correlation. Results Gene content and genome organization The mt genomes of the two Beauveria species had similar sizes, i.e., B. brongniartii IMBST 95031 33,926 bp and B. bassiana Bb147 32,263 bp, and both mapped circularly (Fig. 1). They contained all the expected genes found in typical mt genomes of ascomycetes (see Fig. 1; and Additional File 1, Table S1). Both genomes

were compact and preserved the four synteny units proposed for Sordariomycetes, i.e., rns-trn (1-5)-cox3-trn (1-5)-nad6-trn (2-9); nad1-nad4-atp8-atp6; rnl-trn (11-12)-nad2-nad3 and nad4L-nad5-cob-cox1 [38]. Important deduced differences in the gene content of the two genomes were found only when the intron number and insertion sites were included. This was also the case for mtDNA genome sequence of another B. bassiana isolate (Bb13) from China, recently deposited in GenBank (EU371503; 29.96 kb). When compared with our Bb147 mtDNA genome sequence, the two genomes were identical in gene order and nucleotide sequence (98-100%), for most of their sequence (approx. 28.1 kb). The difference in size -approx. 2.