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Open Access Stemphylium revisited

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In 2007 a new Stemphylium leaf spot disease of Beta vulgaris (sugar beet) spread through the Netherlands. Attempts to identify this destructive Stemphylium sp. in sugar beet led to a phylogenetic revision of the genus. The name Stemphylium has been recommended for use over that of its sexual morph, Pleospora, which is polyphyletic. Stemphylium forms a well-defined monophyletic genus in the Pleosporaceae, Pleosporales (Dothideomycetes), but lacks an up-to-date phylogeny. To address this issue, the internal transcribed spacer 1 and 2 and intervening 5.8S nr DNA (ITS) of all available Stemphylium and Pleospora isolates from the CBS culture collection of the Westerdijk Institute (N = 418), and from 23 freshly collected isolates obtained from sugar beet and related hosts, were sequenced to construct an overview phylogeny (N = 350). Based on their phylogenetic informativeness, parts of the protein-coding genes calmodulin and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase were also sequenced for a subset of isolates (N = 149). This resulted in a multi-gene phylogeny of the genus Stemphylium containing 28 species-clades, of which five were found to represent new species. The majority of the sugar beet isolates, including isolates from the Netherlands, Germany and the UK, clustered together in a species clade for which the name S. beticola was recently proposed. Morphological studies were performed to describe the new species. Twenty-two names were reduced to synonymy, and two new combinations proposed. Three epitypes, one lectotype and two neotypes were also designated in order to create a uniform taxonomy for Stemphylium.

Keywords: Morphology; Multi-gene phylogeny; Pleospora

Document Type: Research Article

Publication date: 01 June 2017

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  • Studies in Mycology is an international journal which publishes systematic monographs of filamentous fungi and yeasts, and special topical issues related to all fields of mycology, biotechnology, ecology, molecular biology, pathology and systematics. The journal is Open-Access and contains monographs or topical issues (5–6 papers per issue). There are no restrictions of length, although it is generally expected that manuscripts should be at least 50 A4 pages in print.
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