Introducing the novel species, <I>Dothiorella symphoricarposicola</I>, from snowberry in Italy

Species of Dothiorella are common plant pathogens or saprobes found mainly on a variety of woody hosts, with a cosmopolitan distribution. Strains of Dothiorella were isolated from the stems of Symphoricarpos sp. and Cornus sanguinea in Italy. Morphological characters, as well as phylogenetic analyses of the internal transcribed spacer region (ITS4, ITS5) and partial sequences of the translation elongation factor 1-α genes were used to characterize and distinguish the two isolates. One is conspecific to D. sarmentorum previously from Menispermum canadense collected in Sweden, and a description for this species is provided. The second species could not be assigned to any known species of Dothiorella. Dothiorella symphoricarposicola sp. nov. from Symphoricarpos is described and illustrated herein, and compared with similar Dothiorella taxa.