Assessing the Biocontrol Potential of Species Isolated as Endophytes from Species and as Mycoparasites of Rusts of Coffee in Africa.

During surveys conducted in South America and Africa to identify natural fungal enemies of coffee leaf rust (CLR), , over 1500 strains were isolated, either as endophytes from healthy tissues of Coffea species or as mycoparasites growing on rust pustules. Based on morphological data, eight isolates-three isolated from wild or semiwild coffee and five from species on coffee, all from Africa-were provisionally assigned to the genus . A polyphasic study of their morphological, cultural and molecular characteristics-including the Tef1 (translation elongation factor 1 alpha), RPB1 (largest subunit of RNA polymerase II), TUB (β-tubulin) and ACL1 (ATP citrate lyase) regions-confirmed these isolates as belonging to three species of the genus : namely , and .

Erasing the past: a new identity for the Damoclean pathogen causing South American leaf blight of rubber.

Background: South American leaf blight (SALB) of rubber has been the main constraint to production in its neotropical centre of origin since commercial plantations were first established. The fungal causal agent was identified and described more than a century ago but its precise placement within the Ascomycota still remains uncertain. Indeed, such is the ambiguity surrounding the pathogen that each of the spore morphs would, according to their present classification, be placed in different ascomycete families: the Microcyclus sexual morph in the Planistromellaceae and the two purported asexual morphs--Fusicladium and Aposphaeria--in the Venturiaceae and Lophiostomataceae, respectively.

Corynespora cassiicola f. sp. schinii, a Potential Biocontrol Agent for the Weed Schinus terebinthifolius in the United States.

Schinus terebinthifolius (Anacardiaceae), Brazilian peppertree (BP), is a major environmental weed in many tropical and subtropical areas of the globe, including Florida, Hawai'i, and Australia. This plant has been the target of a classical biocontrol project in the United States involving pathogens collected in Brazil for several years. A fungus was found in the Brazilian state of Espírito Santo causing leaf spots and severe foliage blight on BP.

First record of Botryosphaeria ribis associated with leaf spots on Magnolia aff. candollei in Brazil.

A leaf spot disease was observed attacking some Magnolia aff. candollei plants grown in a private garden in the city of Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil. Such leaf spots coalesced and led to extensive blight of foliage.