Molecular and morphological description of two new species of Stemphylium from China and France.

Two new species of Stemphylium (anamor-phic Pleospora) are described on the basis of morphological characters and molecular phylogenet-ic analyses. Stemphylium phaseolina and S. variabilis were isolated respectively from diseased leaves of Phaseolus vulgaris L. in Hebei Province, China, and from diseased leaves of Alliµim sativum L. in Angres, France. The two species exhibit characteristic Stemphylium morphology but are distinct from similar species based on the morphology and development of conidia. The internal transcribed spacer (ITS) nuclear rDNA region and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (gpd) genes were sequenced. The results of maximum parsimony (MP) and maximum likelihood (ML) phylogenetic analyses of the combined DNA sequences of these two gene regions supported S. phaseolina and S. variabilis as two distinct phylogenetic species. The taxonomic descriptions of the new species and their comparison with related species are presented, together with the phylogenetic analysis based on combined DNA sequences of ITS and gpd gene regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]