The Neotropical rust fungus Puccinia psidii, notorious for the severity of its impacts and its broad host range in the family Myrtaceae, is believed to pose the greatest current threat to Hawaii’s forests, including Eucalyptus plantations. Multiple strains of this rust have demonstrated ability to infect different suites of host plants. Only one genotype established in Hawai'i in early 2005 and...

Mycosphaerella species are well-known causal agents of leaf diseases on many economically and ecologically important plant species. In Uruguay, a relatively large number of Mycosphaerellaceae and Teratosphaeriaceae are found on Eucalyptus, but nothing is known of these fungi on native Myrtaceae. The aim of this study was to identify Mycosphaerellaceae and Teratosphaeriaceae species associated w...

UNLABELLED PREMISE OF THE STUDY Here we propose a staining protocol using toluidine blue (TBO) and ruthenium red to reliably identify secondary compounds in the leaves of some species of Myrtaceae. • METHODS AND RESULTS Leaves of 10 species representing 10 different genera of Myrtaceae were processed and stained using five different combinations of ruthenium red and TBO. Optimal staining c...

Background Myrtaceae family includes more than 3,800 species of trees and shrubs, distributed mainly in tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Representatives of this family have great ecological significance for forest ecosystems, and are economically important species in the pharmaceutical, food, cosmetic and perfumery industry [1]. The genus Hexachlamys Berg. (Myrtaceae) has about 10...

The internal transcribed spacers (ITS) of nuclear ribosomal DNA are widely used for phylogenetic inference. Several characteristics, including the influence of RNA secondary structure on the mutational dynamics of ITS, may impact on the accuracy of phylogenies estimated from these regions. Here, we develop RNA secondary structure predictions for representatives of the angiosperm family Myrtacea...

Eucalyptus plantations are frequently used for the establishment of bee yards. This study was carried on at Fazenda Brejão, northwestern region of the State of Minas Gerais, Brazil. This farm is covered both with native Cerrado vegetation (Brazilian savanna) and eucalyptus plantations. This paper reports on the botanic origin of pollen pellets and honey collected from honeybee (Apis mellifera) ...

UNLABELLED PREMISE OF THE STUDY Primers were developed to amplify low-copy nuclear genes in Hawaiian Metrosideros (Myrtaceae). • METHODS AND RESULTS Data from a pooled 454 Titanium run of the partial transcriptomes of four Metrosideros taxa were used to identify the loci of interest. Ten exon-primed intron-crossing (EPIC) markers were amplified and sequenced directly with success in Metros...

Myrtaceae is one of the chemically most variable and most significant essential oil yielding plant families. Despite an abundance of chemical information, very little work has focussed on the biochemistry of terpene production in these plants. We describe 70 unique partial terpene synthase transcripts and eight full-length cDNA clones from 21 myrtaceous species, and compare phylogenetic relatio...

1. Two cossid moths, Coryphodema tristis and Chilecomadia valdiviana, have recently become pests on Eucalyptus nitens in South Africa and Chile, respectively. Both C. tristis and C. valdiviana have large host ranges and high levels of similarity in their host distributions. Their infestations of E. nitens are the first records of these moths on Myrtaceae. 2. The contemporaneous adoption of E. n...

Puccinia psidii sensu lato (s.l.) is an invasive rust fungus threatening a wide range of plant species in the family Myrtaceae. Originating from Central and South America, it has invaded mainland USA and Hawai'i, parts of Asia and Australia. We used CLIMEX to develop a semi-mechanistic global climatic niche model based on new data on the distribution and biology of P. psidii s.l. The model was ...