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Abstract
The Gibberella fujikuroi species complex (Fusarium section Liseola and allied taxa) is composed of an increasingly large number of morphological, biological and phylogenetic species. Most of the known species in this group have been isolated from agricultural ecosystems or have been described from a small number of isolates. We sampled Fusarium communities from native prairie grasses in Kansas and recovered a large number of isolates that superficially resemble F. anthophilum. We used a combination of morphological, biological and molecular characters to describe a new species, Gibberella konza (Gibberella fujikuroi mating population I [MP-I]), from native prairie grasses in Kansas. Although female fertility for field isolates of this species appears to be low, G. konza is heterothallic, and we developed reliably female fertile mating population tester strains for this species. The F. konzum anamorph is differentiated from F. anthophilum and from other Fusarium species in section Liseola by mating compatibility, morphology, AFLP fingerprint profile and differences in β-tubulin DNA sequence.
We thank Amy Beyer and Brook van Scoyoc for their technical assistance. We also thank Drs. R. Bowden and N. Tisserat for editorial suggestions and Dr. W.F.O. Marasas for both his editorial suggestions and for proofing the Latin description. Most of the isolates described in this manuscript originated from plants collected under Konza Prairie Biological Station research permit Nos. 97.27 and 98.49. This research was supported in part by the Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station and by the Sorghum and Millet Collaborative Research Support Program (INTSORMIL) AID/DAN-1254-G-00-0021-00 from the U.S. Agency for International Development. Contribution No. 03-014-J from the Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station, Manhattan.
