Diversity of Botryosphaeriaceae species associated with conifers in Portugal

Abstract

Botryosphaeriaceous fungi were isolated from conifers showing disease symptoms such as die- backs, blights, and cankers. The isolates were grouped based on morphology and ERIC-PCR fingerprinting patterns and representatives of each group were identi- fied by sequencing of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region. Nine species from four different genera in Botryosphaeriaceae were identified within the iso- lates. Many new fungus-host associations were estab- lished and several species of Botryosphaeriaceae are reported from conifers for the first time. Most of these species also represent new reports from Portugal. The genus Neofusicoccum that was thought to be mainly restricted to angiosperms was the most frequent within the collection of isolates, followed by Diplodia. Dothiorella and Botryosphaeria represented a minor fraction of the isolates. Interestingly, the most common species was N. luteum, which had never been reported from coniferous hosts. Our results indicate that Neo- fusicoccumspeciesmay bemore important as pathogens of conifers than it was previously recognised.