Caulicolous <i>Botryosphaeriales</i> from Thailand

Members of Botryosphaeriales are commonly encountered as endophytes or pathogens of various plant hosts. The Botryosphaeriaceae represents the predominant family within this order, containing numerous species associated with canker and dieback disease on a wide range of woody hosts. During the course of routine surveys from various plant hosts in Thailand, numerous isolates of Botryosphaeriaceae, including Aplosporellaceae were collected. Isolates were subsequently identified based on a combination of morphological characteristics and phylogenetic analysis of a combined dataset of the ITS and EF1-α gene regions. The resulting phylogenetic tree revealed 11 well-supported clades, correlating with different members of Botryosphaeriales. Other than confirming the presence of taxa such as Lasiodiplodia theobromae, L. pseudotheobromae and Neofusicoccum parvum, new records for Thailand include Pseudofusicoccum adansoniae and P. ardesiacum. Furthermore, four novel species are described, namely Diplodia neojuniperi from Juniperus chinensis, Lasiodiplodia thailandica from Mangifera indica, Pseudofusicoccum artocarpi and Aplosporella artocarpi from Artocarpus heterophyllus, while a sexual morph is also newly reported for L. gonubiensis. Further research is presently underway to determine the pathogenicity and relative importance of these species on different woody hosts in Thailand.