The History of Botrytis Taxonomy, the Rise of Phylogenetics, and Implications for Species Recognition

Abstract

Botrytis is one of the most well-studied, economically-important, and oldest fungal taxa. Nonetheless, many species in this genus have remained obscured for nearly 300 years due to the difficulty in distinguishing these species by conventional mycological methods. Aided by the use of phylogenetic tools, the genus is currently undergoing a taxonomic revolution. The number of putative species in the genus has nearly doubled over the last 10 years and more species are likely to be discovered into the future. The implementation of phylogenetic species recognition concepts in genus Botrytis is providing for more resolution on the relatedness among species than ever before and has helped to overcome issues in historical species recognition using morphology, sexual crosses, and pathogenicity trials. Meanwhile, the use of genetic tools is helping to reveal surprising insight into this archetypal necrotroph’s behavior, making these approaches increasingly important in species recognition and identification. As Botrytis taxonomy continues to evolve at a rapid pace, researchers should be encouraged to continue to employ the powerful tool of phylogenetics while considering how it fits into a larger framework of classical Botrytis species recognition. Starting points for discussion on how to move forward with Botrytis species recognition are included herein, with an emphasis on the implications and utility of new species descriptions.

Novel Botrytis and Cladosporium Species Associated with Flower Diseases of Macadamia in Australia

“…The three nuclear protein-coding genes, G3PDH, HSP60, and RPB2, have been used to characterize the Botrytis species [17]. To date, 40 species are phylogenetically recognized in Botrytis [16,46], including B. macadamiae. Whether B. macadamiae causes grey mold in macadamia has yet to be ascertained.…”

“…Among them, B. cinerea is one of the most important plant pathogens with wide-reaching economic and scientific impacts [14,15]. Many new species of Botrytis have been proposed [16] since Staats et al [17] used molecular phylogenies to recognize Botrytis spp. The genus Cladosporium (Cladosporiaceae, Dothideomycetes) was introduced by Link [18] with C. herbarum (Pers.)…”

Botrytis spp.: A Contemporary Perspective and Synthesis of Recent Scientific Developments of a Widespread Genus that Threatens Global Food Security

“…More recently, informative protein-coding genes such as glyceraldehyde-3-phosate dehydrogenase (G3PDH), heat-shock protein 60 (HSP60), DNA-dependent RNA polymerase subunit II (RPB2), and necrosis and ethylene-inducing proteins 1 and 2 (NEP1 and NEP2) have been identified and utilized in molecular assays to improve the phylogeny of Botrytis spp., identify new species, and further delineate Botrytis species into separate, closely related species or cryptic species (Staats et al 2005(Staats et al , 2007aWalker 2016). In this issue, Garfinkel (2021) provides a review of the history of Botrytis speciation. The author discusses the usefulness and limitations of traditional morphological species recognition and biological species recognition for Botrytis speciation and provides an update on recent advancements in molecular phylogenetic analysis for genealogical concordance phylogenetic species recognition for Botrytis speciation.…”

“…The author discusses the usefulness and limitations of traditional morphological species recognition and biological species recognition for Botrytis speciation and provides an update on recent advancements in molecular phylogenetic analysis for genealogical concordance phylogenetic species recognition for Botrytis speciation. Based on phylogenetic analysis of commonly used protein-coding genes since the work of Staats et al (2005Staats et al ( , 2007a, various new species of Botrytis have been recognized and established and are summarized by Garfinkel (2021). The author also discusses what criteria need to be examined in the description of new species of Botrytis given the diversity within and among Botrytis species.…”

The bud rot pathogens infecting cannabis (Cannabis sativa L., marijuana) inflorescences: symptomology, species identification, pathogenicity and biological control

“…The genus Botrytis contains up to 38 recognized species which differ in biology, morphology and host range and can be distinguished using a range of molecular approaches (Staats et al 2005;Garfinkel et al 2019;Garfinkel 2021). Botrytis cinerea is the most widespread generalist species, causing grey mould on over 1400 plant species (Garfinkel et al 2019;Kozhar et al 2020;Garfinkel 2021) and it is commonly found in both agricultural and nonagricultural environments (Bardin et al 2018) and is prevalent in greenhouses (Hausbeck and Pennypacker 1991;Carisse and van der Heyden 2015). Pathogen populations tend to be genetically diverse with little evidence for host specialization (Kozhar et al 2020).…”