Two new Ophiostoma species with Sporothrix anamorphs from Austria and Azerbaijan

The genus Ophiostoma includes numerous species of primarily insect-vectored, wood-staining fungi. Several anamorph genera that differ in their micronematous or macronematous conidiogenous cells have been associated with Ophiostoma species. Among the former group, Sporothrix is associated with many species and is characterized by conidi- ogenous cells that arise laterally or terminally from any place on the hyphae and produce nonseptate co- nidia on sympodially developing denticles. The pur- pose of this study was to characterize ophiostomatoid isolates with Sporothrix anamorphs recently collected in Austria and Azerbaijan. The isolates were charac- terized based on comparisons of rDNA and b-tubulin sequence data. Morphology, growth in culture, and sexual reproductive mode were also considered. Phy- logenetic analyses of the combined sequence data showed that the isolates formed two distinct groups, one including isolates from Austria and the other iso- lates from Austria and Azerbaijan. Growth at 25 C and morphology revealed some differences between the two groups, and supported the view that they rep- resent two new species, which we describe here as Ophiostoma fusiforme sp. nov. and Ophiostoma luna- tum sp. nov. Both these groups phylogenetically were related to, but distinct from, Ophiostoma stenoceras.