Molecular taxonomy reveals the sexual morph of Nodulosphaeria digitalis in Phaeosphaeriaceae from Campanula trachelium in Italy

Abstract

The fungal genus Nodulosphaeria is one of the oldest phaeosphaeriaceous genera that comprises saprobic, endophytic and pathogenic species associated with a wide variety of substrates. There are 71 species epithets listed under Nodulosphaeria in Index Fungorum and most of these published records lack illustrations and descriptions, or DNA sequence data and thus it is challenging to confirm their names or investigate taxonomic relationships. In this study, we report the sexual morph of Nodulosphaeria digitalis, a terrestrial saprobe belonging to the genus Nodulosphaeria (Phaeosphaeriaceae, Pleosporales), on stems of Campanula trachelium from Arezzo Province, Italy. This is the first record of a Nodulosphaeria taxon on Campanulaceae. Maximum likelihood, Maximum parsimony and Bayesian inference analyses of combined ITS, LSU, SSU and TEF1-α sequence data reveal that the novel isolate belongs to the family Phaeosphaeriaceae and nests with Nodulosphaeria digitalis with strong bootstrap support. The detailed descriptions and illustrations of the sexual morph of N. digitalis, an updated phylogenetic tree for the genus Nodulosphaeria are provided.