Sexual morph of didymellaceous taxa are characterized by their ascomata with relatively thin peridium, cylindric-clavate to clavate, short-pedicellate or apedicellate asci, hyaline to brown, 1septate to muriform ascospores.Its asexual morphs are coelomycetous and comprising pycnidial or acervulus conidiomata, phialidic, hyaline conidiogenous cells and hyaline or pale brown, septate or aseptate conidia.The majority of these cosmopolitan species are plant associated fungi which can be pathogens on a wide range of hosts and some species are of particular relevance for quarantine measures.Recent studies have significantly improved the taxonomy and systematics of didymellaceous taxa based on molecular phylogenetics.In contrast to the accurate and detailed studies on the asexual morphs which are common obligate pathogens, information on their usually saprobic sexual morphs is still limited.Among these phenotypically diverse species, spore characteristics are quite unique as most have hyaline spores with 0-1 septum, while only Neomicrosphaeropsis and Didymellocamarosporium are reported as producing pigmented, muriform spores.These dematiaceous muriform spores are characteristic of a considerable number of species that may be quite divergent in other characters.During taxonomic investigations on the diversity of didymellaceous taxa, we have isolated species from Alhagi pseudalhagi, Coronilla emerus, Cytisus sp., Elaeagnus angustifolia and Spartium junceum in Italy, Russia and Uzbekistan.A comprehensive phylogeny, based on four loci (ITS, LSU, rpb2 and tub2) is used to infer species relationships.Comprehensive morphological descriptions and in-depth phylogenetic investigations of five new species viz.Ascochyta coronillae-emeri, Microsphaeropsis spartii-juncei, Neomicrosphaeropsis alhagi-pseudalhagi, N. cytisicola and N. elaeagni are presented.

The family Testudinaceae and its intergeneric classification are poorly understood.This is due to overlap of morphological characteristics in genera and lack of DNA sequence data to infer phylogenetic relationships.The main objective of the present paper is to establish a novel genus, Muritestudina, based on distinct morphological characteristics and analyses of combined LSU, SSU, ITS, rpb2 and tef1 sequence data.We also fill the gap of our current knowledge on the phylogenetic position of Testudinaceae.Based on the morphological characteristics of species representing existing genera of Testudinaceae, we herein introduce a new genus, Muritestudina with M. chiangraiensis as the type species.The new genus is characterized by globose to subglobose, ostiolate ascomata; a peridium of brown to dark-brown cells of textura angularis; septate and cellular pseudoparaphyses; cylindric-clavate asci with a distinct pedicel; and hyaline, ellipsoidal and muriform ascospores.The new genus differs from the other genera in Testudinaceae in having hyaline, muriform ascospores.Combined analyses of ribosomal and protein coding gene sequence data confirmed that our new taxon belongs in Testudinaceae with a close relationship with Neotestudina rosatii.

In order to establish the evolutionary relationships and resolve the polyphyletic nature of Dothideomycetes, we are studying their natural classification based on both morphology and multigene phylogeny.In this paper we introduce Vaginatispora appendiculata, a novel species on dead twigs from southern Thailand.Morphological character differences and analyses of combined LSU, TEF, SSU and ITS sequence datasets support the validity of the new species and its placement in Vaginatispora (Lophiostomataceae).