A review of Botryosphaeriales in Venezuela with special reference to woody plants

The Botryosphaeriales order is best known for the diseases they cause in woody plants, as primary pathogens or latent pathogens residing in the woody tissue of asymptomatic hosts. In the first instance, Botryosphaeriales species have been identified in Venezuela using morphological descriptions in the ‘80s and ‘90s, and later, the mid-2000s using molecular techniques. The morphological descriptions of the asexual morphs were initially used for the identification of Botryosphaeriales genera and species. Lasiodiplodia spp. (as L. theobromae) was the most isolated fungus in Venezuela within the Botryosphaeriales and has been found in more than 50% of the hosts in native and non-native plants, followed by Diplodia, Dothiorella, Fusicoccum, Microdiplodia, Macrophomina, Neofusicoccum, Sphaeropsis, and Botryosphaeria, considered all of them cosmopolitan group. Molecular studies, that included DNA sequence data from multiple genes, such as the internal transcribed spacer of rDNA (ITS), translation elongation factor-1α (tef1), and β-tubulin (btub) used on the fungi isolated from woody plants, mainly trees or forest species, reveled the presence of two families within the Botryosphaeriales order for Venezuela. Botryosphaeriaceae family includes the genera: Botryosphaeria, Cophinforma, Diplodia, Lasiodiplodia and Neofusicoccum, and the Pseudofusicoccumaceae family includes the genus Pseudofusicoccum. In the Botryosphaeriaceae the Lasiodiplodia genus was the most predominant in most hosts, and the species L. theobromae the most isolated in native and non-native plants. Botryosphaeria dothidea, Cophinforma atrovirens, Diplodia scrobiculata (syn. D. guayanensis), Lasiodiplodia brasiliensis, L. crassispora, L. pseudotheobromae, Neofusicoccum arbuti (syn. N. andinum), N. parvum, and N. ribis are cosmopolitan species, and they were isolated from native and non-native plants. Pseudofusicoccum stromaticum was found in plantations non-native of Acacia mangium, E. urophylla x E. grandis, Eucalyptus urophylla, and reported exclusively in South America. Lasiodiplodia venezuelensis has only been reported in Venezuela, and it was isolated from native and non-native plants. The presence, distribution, diversity, and symptoms of these fungi, mainly of the new genus, new species, and reports found in Venezuela and other parts of the world, were also reviewed.