Abstract:
The ascomycete family Nectriaceae (Hypocreales) includes numerous important plant and human pathogens, as well as several species used extensively in
industrial and commercial applications as biodegraders and biocontrol agents. Members of the family are unified by phenotypic characters such as uniloculate ascomata
that are yellow, orange-red to purple, and with phialidic asexual morphs. The generic concepts in Nectriaceae are poorly defined, since DNA sequence data have not
been available for many of these genera. To address this issue we performed a multi-gene phylogenetic analysis using partial sequences for the 28S large subunit (LSU)
nrDNA, the internal transcribed spacer region and intervening 5.8S nrRNA gene (ITS), the large subunit of the ATP citrate lyase (acl1), the RNA polymerase II largest
subunit (rpb1), RNA polymerase II second largest subunit (rpb2), α-actin (act), β-tubulin (tub2), calmodulin (cmdA), histone H3 (his3), and translation elongation factor 1-
alpha (tef1) gene regions for available type and authentic strains representing known genera in Nectriaceae, including several genera for which no sequence data were
previously available. Supported by morphological observations, the data resolved 47 genera in the Nectriaceae. We re-evaluated the status of several genera, which
resulted in the introduction of six new genera to accommodate species that were initially classified based solely on morphological characters. Several generic names are
proposed for synonymy based on the abolishment of dual nomenclature. Additionally, a new family is introduced for two genera that were previously accommodated in
the Nectriaceae.