| Abstrakt: |
ABSTRACTThe objectives of this study were to report Fusariumspecies associated with Aleurocanthus woglumi(Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) collected from citrus leaves from an agroecological polyculture in Brazil, assess sexual reproductive mode of the species with unknown sexual stages, and provide an augmented description of F. volatile, for which we discovered a sexual stage. Nineteen Fusariumisolates were recovered from A. woglumi. These fungi belong to three species complexes, i.e., the F. chlamydosporumspecies complex (FCSC), the F. fujikuroispecies complex (FFSC), and the F. incarnatum-equisetispecies complex (FIESC). Based on multilocus phylogenetic analyses, the species were identified as F. annulatum, F. chlamydosporum, F. pernambucanum, F. sulawesiense, F. verticillioides, and F. volatile. Our results suggest that three species whose sexual stages are unknown (F. chlamydosporum, F. sulawesiense, and F. volatile) are also heterothallic. Intraspecific crosses of F. sulawesienseand F. volatileproduced protoperithecia, whereas 66.7% of F. volatilecrosses produced fertile perithecia. We provide an augmented description of the latter species to include characteristics of its sexual morph and those observed in the asexual morph that had not yet been described for the species. This study highlights the potential of researching insect-associated fungi to increase knowledge about the diversity, taxonomy, and versatility of Fusariumin ecosystems. |
