Novel species of fungi described in the present study include the following from Malaysia: Castanediella eucalypti from Eucalyptus pellita, Codinaea acacia from Acacia mangium, Emarcea eucalyptigena from Eucalyptus brassiana, Myrtapenidiella eucalyptorum from Eucalyptus pellita, Pilidiella eucalyptigena from Eucalyptus brassiana and Strelitziana malaysiana from Acacia mangium. Furthermore, Stachybotrys sansevieriicola is described from Sansevieria ehrenbergii (Tanzania), Phacidium grevilleae from Grevillea robusta (Uganda), Graphium jumulu from Adansonia gregorii and Ophiostoma eucalyptigena from Eucalyptus marginata (Australia), Pleurophoma ossicola from bone and Plectosphaerella populi from Populus nigra (Germany), Colletotrichum neosansevieriae from Sansevieria trifasciata, Elsinoë othonnae from Othonna quinquedentata and Zeloasperisporium cliviae (Zeloasperisporiaceae fam. nov.) from Clivia sp. (South Africa), Neodevriesia pakbiae, Phaeophleospora hymenocallidis and Phaeophleospora hymenocallidicola on leaves of a fern (Thailand), Melanconium elaeidicola from Elaeis guineensis (Indonesia), Hormonema viticola from Vitis vinifera (Canary Islands), Chlorophyllum pseudoglobossum from a grassland (India), Triadelphia disseminata from an immunocompromised patient (Saudi Arabia), Colletotrichum abscissum from Citrus (Brazil), Polyschema sclerotigenum and Phialemonium limoniforme from human patients (USA), Cadophora vitícola from Vitis vinifera (Spain), Entoloma flavovelutinum and Bolbitius aurantiorugosus from soil (Vietnam), Rhizopogon granuloflavus from soil (Cape Verde Islands), Tulasnella eremophila from Euphorbia officinarum subsp. echinus (Morocco), Verrucostoma martinicensis from Danaea elliptica (French West Indies), Metschnikowia colchici from Colchicum autumnale (Bulgaria), Thelebolus microcarpus from soil (Argentina) and Ceratocystis adelpha from Theobroma cacao (Ecuador). Myrmecridium iridis (Myrmecridiales ord. nov., Myrmecridiaceae fam. nov.) is also described from Iris sp. (The Netherlands). Novel genera include (Ascomycetes): Budhanggurabania from Cynodon dactylon (Australia), Soloacrosporiella, Xenocamarosporium, Neostrelitziana and Castanediella from Acacia mangium and Sabahriopsis from Eucalyptus brassiana (Malaysia), Readerielliopsis from basidiomata of Fuscoporia wahlbergii (French Guyana), Neoplatysporoides from Aloe ferox (Tanzania), Wojnowiciella, Chrysofolia and Neoeriomycopsis from Eucalyptus (Colombia), Neophaeomoniella from Eucalyptus globulus (USA), Pseudophaeomoniella from Olea europaea (Italy), Paraphaeomoniella from Encephalartos altensteinii, Aequabiliella, Celerioriella and Minutiella from Prunus (South Africa). Tephrocybella (Basidiomycetes) represents a novel genus from wood (Italy). Morphological and culture characteristics along with ITS DNA barcodes are provided for all taxa.

Plant pathogenic fungi are a large and diverse assemblage of eukaryotes with substantial impacts on natural ecosystems and human endeavours. These taxa often have complex and poorly understood life cycles, lack observable, discriminatory morphological characters, and may not be amenable to in vitro culturing. As a result, species identification is frequently difficult. Molecular (DNA sequence) data have emerged as crucial information for the taxonomic identification of plant pathogenic fungi, with the nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region being the most popular marker. However, international nucleotide sequence databases are accumulating numerous sequences of compromised or low-resolution taxonomic annotations and substandard technical quality, making their use in the molecular identification of plant pathogenic fungi problematic. Here we report on a concerted effort to identify high-quality reference sequences for various plant pathogenic fungi and to re-annotate incorrectly or insufficiently annotated public ITS sequences from these fungal lineages. A third objective was to enrich the sequences with geographical and ecological metadata. The results – a total of 31,954 changes – are incorporated in and made available through the UNITE database for molecular identification of fungi (http://unite.ut.ee), including standalone FASTA files of sequence data for local BLAST searches, use in the next-generation sequencing analysis platforms QIIME and mothur, and related applications. The present initiative is just a beginning to cover the wide spectrum of plant pathogenic fungi, and we invite all researchers with pertinent expertise to join the annotation effort.

The authors describe ten new taxa for science using mostly both morphological and molecular data. In Ascomycota, descriptions are provided for Bambusistroma didymosporum gen. et spec. nov. (Pleosporales), Neodeightonia licuriensis sp. nov. (Botryosphaeriales) and Camposporium himalayanum sp. nov. (Fungi imperfecti). In Zygomycota, Gongronella guangdongensis sp. nov. (Mucorales) is described. Finally, in Basidiomycota descriptions are provided for Boidinia parva sp. nov. and Russula katarinae sp. nov. (Russsulales), Gloiocephala parvinelumbonifolia sp. nov. (Agaricales), Hypochnicium austrosinensis sp. nov. (Polyporales), Phallus ultraduplicatus sp. nov. (Phallales) and Suillus lariciphilus sp. nov. (Boletales).

The global expansion of cultivation areas of Jatropha has contributed to the emergence of various diseases. Currently in Brazil, the occurrence of a new disease has been reported that not only reduces the productivity but also causes the death of Jatropha. This disease is associated with collar and root rot of plants. From morphological and phylogenetic studies (based on Internal Transcribed Spacers, β-tubulin and Translation Elongation Factor 1-α sequences), nine species of Botryosphaeriaceae were identified. These species include Lasiodiplodia egyptiacae, L. pseudotheobromae, L. theobromae, Macrophomina phaseolina, Neoscytalidium hyalinum and four Lasiodiplodia spp. that are proposed as new species (L. euphorbicola, L. jatrophicola, L.macrospora and L. subglobosa). All the species in this study, except M. phaseolina, are pathogenic. The results show that root rot of physic nut plants is caused by complex pathogens. This study provides new information for future studies of disease management, quarantine programs and, especially, the development of resistant varieties for collar and root rot disease in J. curcas.

The authors describe ten new taxa for science using mostly both morphological and molecular data. In Ascomycota, descriptions are provided for Ceramothyrium ficus (Chaetothyriales, Eurotiomycetes), Lachnum fusiforme (Leotiomycetes, Helotiales), four new species in Dothideomycetes, namely Micropeltis dendrophthoes (Microthyriales), Montagnula bellevaliae and M. scabiosae (Pleosporales), Scorias mangiferae (Capnodiales), as well as for Mucodor coffeanum (Xylariales, Sordariomycetes). In Basidiomycota, three new subgenera are introduced in Russula (Russulales).

The first black mildew fungus associated with Apiaceae is collected from the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The new species is described, illustrated, and compared morphologically with species reported on hosts belonging to the related Araliaceae. Additionally, two efficient methods for extracting DNA from biotrophic fungi are described. Phylogenetic 28S rDNA sequence analyses confirm Meliolales as a distinct order within Sordariomycetes.