Comparison of Gaeumannomyces- and Phialophora-like fungal pathogens from maize and other plants using DNA methods

Several DNA-based techniques, developed for identifying and differentiating fungi in the Gaeumannomyces-Phialophora complex associated with take-all diseases of cereals and grasses, were used to compare fungi from maize. Maize isolates obtained as G. graminis (Sacc.) Arx & H Olivier var. tritici Walker, from the UK, having been identified by ascospore morphology and in pathogenicity tests on wheat, were indistinguishable from isolates of the same variety obtained from wheat. Isolates of G. graminis (Sacc.) Arx & H Olivier var. maydis Yao et al., recently described as the maize take-all fungus from China, were identical in DNA tests to the anamorphic fungus Phialophora radicicola Cain and almost identical to Phialophora zeicola Deacon & Scott, whose description was originally based on isolates from South Africa and France. These species appear to represent the holomorph of the same fungus. The late wilt pathogen of maize, from India and Egypt, commonly known as Cephalosporium maydis Samra et al., but suggested as being the Phialophora anamorph of a Gaeumannomyces species, was closely related to other Gaeumannomyces species included in the tests.