Barriopsis iraniana and Phaeobotryon cupressi: two new species of the Botryosphaeriaceae from trees in Iran

Abstract

Species in the Botryosphaeriaceae are well known as pathogens and saprobes of woody hosts, but little is known about the species that occur in Iran. In a recent survey of this family in Iran two fungi with diplodia-like anamorphs were isolated from various tree hosts. These two fungi were fully characterised in terms of morphology of the anamorphs in culture, and sequences of the ITS1/ITS2 regions of the ribosomal DNA operon and partial sequences of the translation elongation factor 1-alpha. Phylogenetic analyses placed them within a clade consisting of Barriopsis and Phaeobotryon species, but they were clearly distinct from known species in these genera. Therefore, they are described here as two new species, namely Barriopsis iraniana on Citrus, Mangifera and Olea, and Phaeobotryon cupressi on Cupressus sempervirens.

Keywords: Citrus; EF 1-α; ITS; Mangifera; Olea; phylogeny; systematics; taxonomy.

Fig. 1

Single most parsimonious tree resulting from maximum parsimony analysis of combined ITS and EF1-α sequence data. MP bootstrap values are given at the nodes. The tree was rooted to two isolates of Pseudofusicoccum stromaticum. The new species are in bold face.

Fig. 2

Barriopsis iraniana holotype. a. Conidiomata on pine needles in culture; b, c. conidia developing on conidiogenous cells between paraphyses; d. young conidium showing longitudinal striations while attached to a conidiogenous cell; e. hyaline, striate conidia; f–i. hyaline and brown, striate conidia, 1- and 3-septate conidia can be seen in f and g; j. catenulate chlamydospores. — Scale bars: a = 250 μm; b, c, e–i = 10 μm; d= 5 μm; j = 40 μm.

Fig. 3

Phaeobotryon cupressi holotype. a. Conidiomata formed on pine needles in culture; b. sectioned conidioma; c. paraphyses and developing conidia; d, e. microconidiogenous cells; f. microconidia; g. conidia and conidiogenous cells; h. hyaline conidia; i, j. brown, aseptate conidia; k. germinating conidia; l. chlamydospores and a hyaline conidium. — Scale bars: a = 250 μm; b = 100 μm; c, h, i, k, l = 10 μm; d, e = 2.5 μm; f, g, j = 5 μm.