Study on two species of Ophiostoma in relation with Dutch elm disease in Iran

An investigation was carried out in some areas of Golestan Province including: Loveh forest, Soosara, Daland forest park, Tooskestan; Gilan Province including Siahkal and Asalem forests; Arasbaran and landscape of urban trees during 1999–2007. In this investigation, based on some morphological, physiological and molecular characteristics and also comparison with standard isolates two species Ophiostoma ulmi and O. novo-ulmi were identified as casual agents of Dutch elm disease where majority of isolates belonged to O. novo-ulmi. This is the first report of O. novo-ulmi on Ulmus glabra and U. carpinifolia, from Tooskestan forest and urban elm trees and here it is compared with O. ulmi. The O. novo-ulmi isolates of Iran belonged to the EAN (Euro-Asian) populations based on sequence comparison.