The reassignment of three ‘lost’ Taphrina species (Taphrina bullata, Taphrina insititiae and Taphrina rhizophora) supported by the divergence of nuclear and mitochondrial DNA

Abstract

The ascomycetous genus Taphrina Fries originally contained more than 90 phytopathogenic microscopic dimorphic ascomycetes causing specific infections in different vascular plants. Although species have mainly been identified historically according to their host and morphological and physiological traits, they can be studied and preserved in the form of yeasts arising from germinating ascospores. Due to low DNA sequence divergence and the lack of available strains, the number of accepted Taphrina species has currently been reduced to 28. The aim of this study is the description of three previously accepted species. Taphrina bullata (type strain CCY 58-4-1 = CBS 12783), Taphrina insititiae (type strain CCY 58-5-1 = CBS 12782) and Taphrina rhizophora (type strain CCY 58-6-1 = CBS 12781), which have been omitted from a recent key. The host range, the divergence of the 26S rRNA gene sequence, internal transcribed spacers (ITS) and the mitochondrial small ribosomal subunit (rns) sequence strongly support their reassignment as species.