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Taxonomic study on Alternaria sections Infectoriae and Pseudoalternaria associated with black (sooty) head mold of wheat and barley in Iran

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Abstract

During the spring and summer of 2014 and 2015, wheat and barley fields in the Iranian provinces of Golestan and Alborz showed a high incidence of symptoms of black (sooty) head mold of wheat and barley. The isolation results revealed that Alternaria was associated with these symptoms. One hundred and forty isolates were collected and morphologically characterized based on the development of conidial chains with primary, secondary, and tertiary branching patterns, consistent with the three-dimensional sporulation complexity of members of Alternaria in sections Infectoriae and Pseudoalternaria. Subsequently, 16 Alternaria isolates exhibiting high morphological diversity were characterized based on extensive morphological and molecular comparisons. Phylogenetic analyses of three loci [ITS, glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (gpd), and plasma membrane ATPase (ATPase)] revealed that 15 isolates belonged to section Infectoriae but could not be assigned to phylogenetic species and one isolate represents a new species, Alternaria kordkuyana sp. nov., in section Pseudoalternaria. Morphological assessments revealed a high degree of variation among section Infectoriae isolates and that A. kordkuyana has significant morphological differences as compared to the three other species currently described in section Pseudoalternaria.

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Acknowledgements

DNA sequencing was carried out via support from the Russian Science Foundation (project 14-26-00067). The authors would also like to thank the High Council for Research of the University of Tehran for financial support of this project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Plant Protection, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran

    Alireza Poursafar & Mohammad Javan-Nikkhah

  2. Department of Plant Protection, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Urmia, Urmia, Iran

    Youbert Ghosta

  3. Laboratory of Mycology and Phytopathology, All-Russian Institute of Plant Protection, Shosse Podelskogo 3, Saint Petersburg, 196608, Russia

    Alexandra S. Orina & Philipp B. Gannibal

  4. Department of Plant Pathology, University of California, Davis, CA, 95616, USA

    Daniel P. Lawrence

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  1. Alireza Poursafar
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  2. Youbert Ghosta
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  4. Philipp B. Gannibal
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  5. Mohammad Javan-Nikkhah
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Correspondence to Daniel P. Lawrence.

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Section Editor: Gerhard Rambold

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Fig. S1

Single most likely tree (ln likelihood − 3689.4107) resulting from the analysis of 44 Alternaria ITS sequences. The numbers represent maximum likelihood/maximum parsimony bootstrap values, respectively. The scale bar represents the number of expected substitutions per site (GIF 52 kb)

High Resolution Image (TIFF 1246 kb)

Fig. S2

Single most likely tree (ln likelihood − 1602.8164) resulting from the analysis of 44 Alternaria gpd sequences. The numbers represent maximum likelihood/maximum parsimony bootstrap values, respectively. Values represented by an asterisk were less than 70%. The scale bar represents the number of expected substitutions per site (GIF 57 kb)

High Resolution Image (TIFF 1334 kb)

Fig. S3

Single most likely tree (ln likelihood − 1076.2728) resulting from the analysis of 44 Alternaria plasma membrane ATPase sequences. The numbers represent maximum likelihood/maximum parsimony bootstrap values, respectively. Values represented by an asterisk were less than 70%. The scale bar represents the expected number of substitutions per site (GIF 55 kb)

High Resolution Image (TIFF 1285 kb)

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Poursafar, A., Ghosta, Y., Orina, A.S. et al. Taxonomic study on Alternaria sections Infectoriae and Pseudoalternaria associated with black (sooty) head mold of wheat and barley in Iran. Mycol Progress 17, 343–356 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11557-017-1358-1

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