Stagonosporopsis spp. associated with ray blight disease of Asteraceae

Abstract

Ray blight disease of pyrethrum (Tanacetum cinerariifolium) is shown to be caused by more than one species of Stagonosporopsis. The Australian pathogen, previously identified as Phoma ligulicola var. inoxydabilis, represents a new species described as Stagonosporopsis tanaceti based on morphological characters and a five-gene phylogeny employing partial sequences of the actin, translation elongation factor 1-alpha, internal transcribed spacers and 5.8S of the nrDNA, 28S large subunit and beta-tubulin 2 gene sequences. Furthermore, the two varieties of Stagonosporopsis ligulicola are elevated to species level as S. chrysanthemi and S. inoxydabilis based on their DNA phylogeny and morphology.