Ribosomal and Protein Gene Phylogeny Reveals Novel Saprobic Fungal Species From and .

During an ongoing investigation of Ascomycetes from plant substrates, three saprobic species were found from plant substrates. Two new species, and were isolated from dead branches of from Turkey. Another species is introduced herein as sp. nov within the family Leptosphaeriaceae found on in Italy. Multigene phylogenies based on combined LSU, ITS, SSU, and β-tubulin DNA sequence data generated from maximum likelihood and MrBayes analyses indicate that is related to and forms an independent lineage within the genus . is basal to and its establishment as a new species is strongly supported. forms a moderately supported lineage in between and in the Didymellaceae. Full morphological details are provided herein and phylogenetic relationships of the three new species are also discussed.