Taxonomical re‐examination of the genus Phyllosticta—Parasitic fungi on Cupressaceae trees in Japan

Abstract

Taxonomical re‐examination of the Phyllosticta species parasitic fungi on coniferous trees (Cupressaceae) in Japan was conducted based on current criteria, such as morphological and cultural characteristics, phylogenetic relationship and pathogenicity. Phylogenetic analyses revealed several clades composed of plant pathogens isolated from a specific host as well as clades composed of endophytic species isolated from various Cupressaceae trees. Each clade was recognized as a species from the morphological characteristics and other features, respectively. Five species of Phyllosticta sensu stricto were recognized, and two of them were newly recorded in Japanese mycoflora. Furthermore, new comibination P. pilospora and its epitype are proposed. The epitype and ex‐type strain are also proposed for P. cryptomeriae in this study.

Phyllosticta rizhaoensis sp. nov. causing leaf blight of Ophiopogon japonicus in China

“…ITS (8 bp, 7 bp), LSU (7 bp, 2 bp), tef1 (22 bp, 23 bp) and act (5 bp, 4 bp). Morphologically, P. rizhaoensis can be distinguished from them by having larger conidiogenous cells (7–14 × 2–6 in P. rizhaoensis vs 4–12 × 2–2.5 in P. pilospora and 5–12 × 3–5 in P. spinarum ), smaller conidia (8–12 × 5–7.5 μm in P. rizhaoensis vs 9.5–12 × 7–10 μm in P. pilospora and 10–15 × 7–8 μm in P. spinarum ) and the lack of an apical conidial appendage ( Wikee et al 2013b , Hattori et al . 2020 ).…”

“…The obtained DNA sequences in this study were used to calculate the sequence similarity using the BLASTn program ( https://blast.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Blast.cgi ). Reference sequences are listed in Table 2 ( Norphanphoun et al 2020 , Hattori et al 2020 , Nguyen et al 2022 , Tan & Shivas 2022 ). Sequence alignments were generated with MAFFT v. 7 ( https://mafft.cbrc.jp/alignment/server/ , Katoh et al .…”

“…2009 , Wikee et al . 2013a , Norphanphoun et al 2020 , Hattori et al 2020 , Bhunjun et al 2021, Crous et al 2021 , Nguyen et al 2022 , Tan & Shivas 2022 , Zhang et al 2022 ). Morphologically, species of Phyllosticta are characterised by globose pycnidial conidiomata, subcylindrical to ampulliform conidiogenous cells, and hyaline, 1-celled, globose, subglobose, ellipsoidal to ovoid conidia, usually enclosed in a mucoid layer, bearing a single apical mucoid appendage ( van der Aa & Vanev 2002 ), which are the main features in distinguishing Phyllosticta from other genera.…”

Morphological and Phylogenetic Analyses Reveal Three New Species of Phyllosticta (Botryosphaeriales, Phyllostictaceae) in China

“…As of 25 October 2023, the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) (https: //www.gbif.org/, accessed on 25 October 2023) encompasses 9678 geo-referenced records of Phyllosticta species reported globally. The main distribution locations for these species are in America, Asia, and Europe, with the United States having the most extensive distribution [54,55]. Among the Phyllosticta species, P. carbitalensis, identified as a relatively weak plant pathogenic agent, is known to induce leaf spot diseases in various plants, including tea (Camellia sinensis), oil palm (Elaeis guineensis), Ricinus communis, and guava black spot [56,57] [8,14,33,44,45,[57][58][59][60] have notably enhanced the accuracy of Phyllosticta classification.…”