Caulicolous Botryosphaeriales from Thailand

Members of <i>Botryosphaeriales</i> are commonly encountered as endophytes or pathogens of various plant hosts. The <i>Botryosphaeriaceae</i> 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 <i>Botryosphaeriaceae</i>, including <i>Aplosporellaceae</i> 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-&#945; gene regions. The resulting phylogenetic tree revealed 11 well-supported clades, correlating with different members of <i>Botryosphaeriales</i>. Other than confirming the presence of taxa such as <i>Lasiodiplodia theobromae</i>, <i>L. pseudotheobromae</i> and <i>Neofusicoccum parvum</i>, new records for Thailand include <i>Pseudofusicoccum adansoniae</i> and <i>P. ardesiacum</i>. Furthermore, four novel species are described, namely <i>Diplodia neojuniperi</i> from <i>Juniperus chinensis</i>, <i>Lasiodiplodia thailandica</i> from <i>Mangifera indica</i>, <i>Pseudofusicoccum artocarpi</i> and <i>Aplosporella artocarpi</i> from <i>Artocarpus heterophyllus</i>, while a sexual morph is also newly reported for <i>L. gonubiensis</i>. Further research is presently underway to determine the pathogenicity and relative importance of these species on different woody hosts in Thailand.