Taxonomy and plant pathogenicity of Alternaria species

Abstract

This review article reconstructs the presentation at the 67th annual meeting of the Mycological Society of Japan, held in Kumamoto on May 27-28, 2023. The authors discussed the effectiveness of phenotypic analysis and inoculation tests in classifying and redefining plant pathogenic species of the genus Alternaria. In this study, 26 species, including three novel species, were collected and characterized based on their morphology, phylogeny, and pathogenicity. Each examined species exhibited distinct host selectivity, and their experimental host ranges were restricted by plant systematic ranks, including variety, species, genus, tribe, and subfamily. Therefore, it was concluded that integrated species recognition based on morphology, molecular phylogeny, and pathogenicity elucidates the species boundaries of Alternaria.