THE TAXONOMICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF SOME HELVELLA AND ITS RELATIVES BY MORPHOLOGICAL AND MOLECULAR DATA FROM TURKEY

Herein, 15 fungi species belonging to different genera of Pezizales were studied morphologically and molecularly. During the morphological analyses performed by means of Primer 7 software, 28 characters were used, mainly including the stalk, cap, asci, and spores, to assess the taxonomical relationships of the fungi species. The data matrix and nMDS plot approaches based on the morphological data were highly functional in the determination of the taxonomical relationship of very closely related fungi taxa, particularly at the genus level. Moreover, the data from the ISSR locus analyses significantly supported the current morphological relationships on a wide scale. Contrary to the morphological data expressing taxonomical relationships related to morels or early morels, a minor exceptional condition was determined inferring to the relatively higher genetic similarity among Verpa and Gyromitra in the dendrogram connected with the ISSR analyses.