The diversity of microfungi associated with grasses in the Sporobolus indicus complex in Queensland, Australia

There are five closely related Sporobolus species, collectively known as weedy grasses (WSG) or the rat’s tail grasses. They fast growing, highly competitive, unpalatable weeds of pastures, roadsides and woodlands. An effective biological control agent would be a welcomed alternative to successive herbicide application manual removal methods. This study describes initial exploratory phase isolating identifying native Australian microfungi associated with WSG, prior evaluating their efficacy inundative agents. Accurate species-level identification plant-pathogenic WSG is an essential first step in evaluation prioritisation pathogenicity bioassays. Starting more than 79 unique fungal morphotypes isolated from diseased Queensland, Australia, we employed multi-locus phylogenetic analyses classify these isolates into 54 taxa. These taxa belong 22 Ascomycete families (12 orders), which majority fall within Pleosporales (>24 7 families). In next study, putative species identities will allow us prioritise those likely pathogenic based on existing literature ecological roles. represents systematic, high-throughput approach finding potential plant