Morphological and molecular study on some species of Phoma and related taxa in Iran

The genus Phoma Sacc. consists of important fungal plant pathogenic species occurring on economically important cultivated crops in spite of many other saprobic species. Thus, the aim of this study was to identify 35 isolates of Phoma species and related taxa collected from different hosts by means of morphological and molecular characters. Multi-locus phylogenetic analyses based on ITS1-5.8S-ITS2, actin and β-tubulin gene regions were conducted. Therefore, seven species including Boeremia exigua, Didymella acetosellae, D. bellidis, D. pinodella, Neocamarosporium betae, Phoma destructiva var. destructive, and P. medicaginis were identified and described, and among them, three species including D. bellidis, D. acetosellae, and P. destructiva var. destructiva are new records for the mycobiota of Iran. Also, B. exigua,and D. pinodella are reported for the first time from new host plants including Paliurus spina-christi, and Trigonella-foenum graecum, respectively. The morphological features and phylogenetic analyses were able to clarify the generic and species delimitation very clearly.