Two new species of Botryosphaeria with brown, 1-septate ascospores and Dothiorella anamorphs

Abstract

Botryosphaeria sarmentorum sp. nov. and B. iberica sp. nov. are described and illustrated. These two species are unusual in this genus because of their brown, 1-septate ascospores. Phylogenetic analysis based on ITS and EF1-α sequences place them within the clade containing species with Fusicoccum anamorphs. The brown, 1-septate conidia, however, do not conform to Fusicoccum. Therefore phylogenetically and morphologically the anamorphs of these two species belong in a genus distinct from any of the currently accepted anamorph genera assigned to Botryosphaeria. Through a study of the type species of Dothiorella this genus is resurrected to accommodate anamorphs of Botryosphaeria with brown, 1-septate conidia. Botryosphaeria sarmentorum is shown to be the teleomorph of Diplodia sarmentorum, which in turn is transferred to Dothiorella. Otthia quercus is transferred to Botryosphaeria as B. quercicola nom. nov.

• Botryosphaeriaceae
• Diplodia
• Fusicoccum
• ITS
• molecular phylogenetics
• Otthia
• translation elongation factor EF1-α

We thank Dr Amy Y. Rossman for help with locating information on Dothiorella and an anonymous reviewer for some valuable comments on a draft of this paper. This work was financed by the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) and Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) under project POCTI/AGR/44348 /2002 (Portugal), and Comisión Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnología (CICyT) and FEDER under the research project 1FD97-0911-C3-1 (Spain). Artur Alves was supported by a grant No. SFRH/BD/10389 /2002 from FCT. The authors also thank Prof. N. Anselmi and I. Librandi (Univ. Tuscia, Italy) and M.E. Sánchez (Univ. Córdoba, Spain) for kindly providing us with some of the fungal strains. The curators of G, IMI, K, NYS and UPS are thanked for letting us study specimens in their care.