New records of fungal species of the family Didymellaceae from Iran

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Department of Plant Protection, Faculty of Agriculture, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Khuzestan Province, Iran

Abstract

The Didymellaceae is one of the most species-rich families in the Pleosporales, and contains numerous plant pathogenic, saprobic and endophytic specie, inhabiting a wide range of ecosystems. To identify the fungal species of the Didymellaceae in Iran, we investigated nine unidentified phoma-like strains obtained from the Iranian Fungal Culture Collection (IRAN) and six additional strains obtained from various diseased plants in Khuzestan Province, during 2019–2021. The strains under study were recognized by combining the results obtained from multi-gene phylogenetic analyses (ITS, LSU, rpb2 and tub2), and morphological comparisons. Accordingly, six species belonging to four genera of the Didymellaceae were identified and described as follow: Didymella aquatica, D. segeticola, Ectophoma multirostrata, Epicoccum dendrobii, E. tobaicum and Neomicrosphaeropsis Juglandis. All these species are new records for the fungi of Iran. Furthermore, several new hosts are reported for these taxa.

Keywords