Pyrenophora lolii causes leaf spot on grasses including Festuca spp., Lolium spp., Dactylis spp., Avena sativa and wheat (Triticum aestivum). Infected oat leaves (Avena sativa) showing leaf spot symptoms were collected from the margin of barley fields in Golestan province of Iran during the spring of 2016. A morphological examination of the Pyrenophora specimen was carried out using light microscopy. Inoculation of oat leaves with the isolates of Pyrenophora lolii in greenhouse induced leaf spot on leaves. In order to confirm the morphological identification, sequences of glyceradehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (gpd) gene and Internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions were amplified using gpd1/2 and ITS1/4 primers, respectively. The phylogenetic analysis based on these sequences showed that the isolated Pyrenophora specimen clustered together with sequences of P. lolii. Based on result of morphological examination and phylogenetic analysis, it was concluded that the causal agent of leaf spot of A. sativa (oat) was P. lolii.

The Cucurbitariaceae is a relatively poorly known family of Dothideomycetes. Cucurbitaria berberidis, the type species of Cucurbitaria, was collected on dead twigs of Berberis vulgaris in Austria and this new collection is used to epitypify the taxon and described and illustrated in detail with regard to its sexual and asexual state. Sequence data from 18S nrDNA (SSU) and 28S nrDNA (LSU) gene regions of several isolates of the epitype or iso-epitype specimens were compared with representative isolates of C. berberidis and closely related sequences in GenBank. The phylogenetic results show that Cucurbitariaceae is a well-resolved family within Pleosporineae. A Pyrenochaeta-like coelomycetous asexual state formed in the Cucurbitaria culture, and is illustrated here. The types of Curreya, Rhytidiella and Syncarpella are also studied and illustrated. Taxonomic placements of each genus with their asexual states are discussed. We provisionally accept six genera in Cucurbitariaceae i.e. Cu...

The study on the different isolates of the fungus Pyrenochaeta terrestris that cau se pin k roo t ro t d isea se on o nio n Alliu m cepa L., collected from different areas in Sudan, was carried out to elucidate the morphological, cultural and physiological variations of the pathogen. The PDA med iu m wa s fo u n d su ita b le fo r th e fu n g u s g ro wth , wh i le th e Watson's medium was suitable for isolation. The white Kassala (WK) isolate outgrew the rest of isolates significantly, followed by the red Hudeiba (RHu) isolate, which scored more than two fold the rates of other isolates. The darker pigment of the culture seemed to be maintained only when the fungus utilized sucrose as the carbon source and/or sodium nitrate as the nitrogen source. The fungus Pyrenoehaeta terrestris was found to be more suited to slightly acidic to alkaline pH, although it could grow in a pH range of >4.0-8.0. The colour shade of the culture was found to be affected by the H ion concentration of the medium.

Aquatic hyphomycetes are a diverse, polyphyletic group of asexually reproducing fungi involved in the decomposition of litter in freshwater ecosystems. Curvularia eragrostidis, C. verruculosa and Phragmocephala atra were identified from submerged wood collected from freshwater streams in Yunnan Province, Southwestern China. They were characterised based on morphology and LSU, ITS and SSU sequence data. Phylogenetic analysis of LSU sequences placed the isolates within the order Pleosporales. Curvularia eragrostidis and C. verruculosa are reported from freshwater habitats for the first time. An epitype is designated for Curvularia verruculosa. This is the first phylogenetic placement of the genus Phragmocephala in the family Melanommataceae in Dothideomycetes, providing new DNA sequence data. A new species, Phragmocephala garethjonesii is introduced based on DNA sequence data and morphology. Descriptions and illustrations are provided for the species with notes on their taxonomy and p...

Six actinomycete strains isolated from soil and plant-litter samples in Indonesia were studied for their taxonomic position by using a polyphasic approach. Phylogenetically, all the strains were located in the broad cluster of the genus Actinokineospora. Chemotaxonomic data [cell-wall diamino acid, meso-diaminopimelic acid; cell-wall peptidoglycan, type III (A1γ); major sugars, galactose and arabinose; major menaquinone, MK-9(H4); major fatty acid, iso-C16 : 0; major phospholipid, phosphatidylethanolamine] supported the affiliation of all six strains to the genus Actinokineospora. The results of DNA–DNA hybridization with DNA from type strains of Actinokineospora species with validly published names revealed three DNA–DNA relatedness groups. Group I (ID03-0561T) showed low relatedness to the other strains studied. The three strains in group II (ID03-0784T, ID03-0808 and ID03-0809) formed a group with high relatedness (98–100 %) and showed low relatedness to the other strains studied...