Abstract:
The Botryosphaeriaceae represents an important, cosmopolitan family
of latent pathogens infecting woody plants. Recent studies on native trees in southern
Africa have revealed an extensive diversity of species of Botryosphaeriaceae, about
half of which have not been previously described. This study adds to this growing
body of knowledge, by discovering five new species of the Botryosphaeriaceae on
Acacia karroo, a commonly occurring native tree in southern Africa. These species
were isolated from both healthy and diseased tissues, suggesting they could be latent
pathogens. The isolates were characterized based on their morphology and compared
to other species for which DNA sequence data are available, in phylogenetic analyses
based on the ITS, TEF-1α, β-tubulin and LSU gene regions. The five new species
were described as Diplodia allocellula, Dothiorella dulcispinae, Do. brevicollis,
Spencermartinsia pretoriensis and Tiarosporella urbis-rosarum. Evidence emerging
from this study suggests that many more species of the Botryosphaeriaceae remain to
be discovered in the southern Africa.
