Abstract:
Members of Botryosphaeriales are commonly encountered as endophytes or pathogens of various plant
hosts. The Botryosphaeriaceae represents the predominant family within this order, containing numerous species
associated with canker and dieback disease on a wide range of woody hosts. During the course of routine surveys
from various plant hosts in Thailand, numerous isolates of Botryosphaeriaceae, including Aplosporellaceae were
collected. Isolates were subsequently identified based on a combination of morphological characteristics and
phylogenetic analysis of a combined dataset of the ITS and EF1-α gene regions. The resulting phylogenetic tree
revealed 11 well-supported clades, correlating with different members of Botryosphaeriales. Other than confirming
the presence of taxa such as Lasiodiplodia theobromae, L. pseudotheobromae and Neofusicoccum parvum, new
records for Thailand include Pseudofusicoccum adansoniae and P. ardesiacum. Furthermore, four novel species are
described, namely Diplodia neojuniperi from Juniperus chinensis, Lasiodiplodia thailandica from Mangifera indica,
Pseudofusicoccum artocarpi and Aplosporella artocarpi from Artocarpus heterophyllus, while a sexual morph is
also newly reported for L. gonubiensis. Further research is presently underway to determine the pathogenicity and
relative importance of these species on different woody hosts in Thailand.
