Austropaxillus

Austropaxillus is a genus of fungi in the family Serpulaceae, containing nine species found in Australia, New Zealand and South America.

==Taxonomy and naming== In 1999, Andreas Bresinsky and colleagues studied the genus Paxillus, which appeared to have a centre of diversity in the Southern Hemisphere as a number of species had been described from Australia, New Zealand, Chile and Argentina in southern South America. Genetic analysis revealed that members of what had been broadly construed as Paxillus fell into three distinct clades. The Southern Hemisphere species were found to be in a lineage that is most closely related to the brown rot genus Serpula. Supporting this is the finding that the compound 2,4,5-trihydroxyphenylglyoxylic acid has been isolated from members of both Austropaxillus and Serpula. Hence they moved these species into the new genus Austropaxillus. Later analysis revealed a relationship to Gymnopaxillus, a small genus of truffle-like fungi known from south-eastern Australia, Argentina, and Chile. Austropaxillus and Gymnopaxillus, both mycorrhizal genera, form a monophyletic clade that is sister to the saprotrophic genus Serpula. Using molecular clock analysis, the split between Austropaxillus and Serpula has been estimated to have occurred about 34.9 mya, roughly coinciding with the separation of South America and Australia from Antarctica.