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1 Department of Microbiology, Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology
Institute (FABI), University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002, South
Africa
2 Department of Genetics, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, 0002, South
Africa
3 Centraalbureau voor Schimmelcultures, Fungal Biodiversity Centre, P.O. Box
85167, 3508 AD, Utrecht, The Netherlands
*
Correspondence: Gavin C. Hunter,
gavin.hunter{at}fabi.up.ac.za
Species of the ascomycete genus Mycosphaerella are regarded as
some of the most destructive leaf pathogens of a large number of economically
important crop plants. Amongst these, approximately 60 Mycosphaerella
spp. have been identified from various Eucalyptus spp. where they
cause leaf diseases collectively known as Mycosphaerella Leaf Disease (MLD).
Species concepts for this group of fungi remain confused, and hence their
species identification is notoriously difficult. Thus, the introduction of DNA
sequence comparisons has become the definitive characteristic used to
distinguish species of Mycosphaerella. Sequences of the Internal
Transcribed Spacer (ITS) region of the ribosomal RNA operon have most commonly
been used to consider species boundaries in Mycosphaerella. However,
sequences for this gene region do not always provide sufficient resolution for
cryptic taxa. The aim of this study was, therefore, to use DNA sequences for
three loci, ITS, Elongation factor 1-alpha (EF-1
) and Actin (ACT) to
reconsider species boundaries for Mycosphaerella spp. from
Eucalyptus. A further aim was to study the anamorph concepts and
resolve the deeper nodes of Mycosphaerella, for which part of the
Large Subunit (LSU) of the nuclear rRNA operon was sequenced. The ITS and
EF-1 gene regions were found to be useful, but the ACT gene region did
not provide species-level resolution in Mycosphaerella. A phylogeny
of the combined DNA datasets showed that species of Mycosphaerella
from Eucalyptus cluster in two distinct groups, which might
ultimately represent discrete genera.
Keywords Actin / Ascomycetes / Translation Elongation factor 1-alpha / Multi-gene phylogeny / Mycosphaerella / Mycosphaerella Leaf Disease / ribosomal RNA operon
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