Novel species and records of Colletotrichum associated with native woody plants in south-central Chile

Abstract

Worldwide, the genus Colletotrichum has been poorly documented in forest trees compared to crops. In Chile, most of the records from native plants date from the beginning of the last century, and only a few species are properly identified according to modern taxonomy. To contribute to the knowledge of Colletotrichum species diversity in Chilean native forests, we examined 50 strains collected from 17 woody plant hosts between 36 and 40° S latitude in south-central Chile. Based on morphological characters, multi-locus phylogenetic analyses (ITS, GAPDH, CHS-1, HIS3, ACT, TUB2), and coalescent-based species delimitation methods, we identified ten species belonging to the Colletotrichum acutatum and Colletotrichum boninense species complexes. These were identified as Colletotrichum arboricola, C. brassicicola, C. godetiae, C. pyricola, C. rhombiforme, and C. roseum, along with the new species described here as C. americanum, C. laurosilvaticum, C. palki, and C. perseicola. We also propose to synonymize C. lauri with C. godetiae and C. australisinense with C. wanningense.