Mycosphere Essays 2. Myrothecium

Myrothecium (family Stachybotryaceae) has a worldwide distribution. Species in this genus were previously classified based on the morphology of the asexual morph, especially characters of conidia and conidiophores. Morphology-based identification alone is imprecise as there are few characters to differentiate species within the genus and, therefore, molecular sequence data is important in identifying species. In this review we discuss the history and significance of the genus, illustrate the morphology and discuss its role as a plant pathogen and biological control agent. We illustrate the type species Myrothecium inundatum with a line diagram and M. uttaradiensis with photo plates and discuss species numbers in the genus. The genus is re-evaluated based on molecular analyses of ITS and EF1-α sequence data, as well as a combined ATP6, EF1-α, LSU, RPB1 and SSU dataset. The combined gene analysis proved more suitable for resolving the taxonomic placement of this genus. Results indicate that Myrothecium species are polyphyletic within Stachybotryaceae. We suggest future studies needed for the genus.