How a fungal order Hymenochaetales diversified in China inferred from its spatiotemporal pattern

Spatiotemporal pattern of biodiversity is an indicator of evolutionary history, and provides crucial information for recognizing evolutionary process of life on the Earth over time and space. Here, we for the first time comprehensively analyze macrofungal spatiotemporal pattern in China at the order level taking Hymenochaetales as the exemplar. A total of 3950 occurrence records from all 490 known species in China are included, and the results indicate that species richness, weighted species endemism, phylogenetic diversity and phylogenetic endemism of Hymenochaetales were generally higher in southern China with lower latitudes. Accordingly, the predicted current highly suitable habitats for Hymenochaetales concentrated in the central to southern China, where the lineages of Hymenochaetales were older than those in habitats with other suitability levels. The Chinese ancestor of Hymenochaetales was evaluated to originate 201.63 million years ago with two ancient divergence hotspots. Since the origination, Hymenochaetales in southeastern China intensively diversified, while the other ancient divergence hotspot near Tianshan Mountains in the northwest of northwestern China underwent much less diversification. The differentiated fate of Hymenochaetales between these two ancient divergence hotspots was correlated with local temperature and host plant density. In summary, the current study revealed the diversification scenario of Hymenochaetales in China, and provided a leading demonstration for macrofungal macroevolution.