New records and hosts of the Curvularia species in Iran

In present study, eight isolates of the genus Curvularia, recovered from plants of the cowpea, maize and bottlebrush in Khuzestan province, were identified based on molecular phylogeny in combination with morphology. The mycelial biomass of the isolates, produced in potato-dextrose-Broth, were collected by passing through filter papers and freeze-dried. DNA was extracted using a phenol- and chloroform-based method. The partial regions of nrDNA and gpd were amplified using the appropriate primers and then sequenced. The consensus ITS and gpd sequences of the isolates under survey were compared to reference sequences of the type strains in GenBank by BLASTn algorithm and two-loci phylogenetic analysis. Accordingly, the isolates were identified at species level as follow: Curvularia americana, C. muehlenbeckiae,and C.verruculosa. To our knowledge, this is the first record of both the C. americana and C. muehlenbeckiae in Iran. Moreover, this study reports new hosts for all three species with further morphological and molecular characterization of C.verruculosa species as well.