Early evolution of endoparasitic group in powdery mildews: molecular phylogeny suggests missing link between Phyllactinia and Leveillula.

Of the 17 genera of the Erysiphaceae, only four genera (viz. Leveillula, Phyllactinia, Pleochaeta and Queirozia) exhibit (partly) endoparasitism. To investigate early evolution of this endoparasitic nature, we performed molecular phylogenetic analyses of powdery mildews belonging to the tribe Phyllactinieae collected in North and South America. The most ancestral taxa in the tribe Phyllactinieae belong to the Pleochaeta/Queirozia group, from which the genus Phyllactinia was derived. Finally, the truly endoparasitic genus Leveillula emerged from a part of Phyllactinia The present study showed clear evolutional polarity in the powdery mildews concerned (that is, partly endoparasitic group evolved from ectoparasitic group) and then a truly endoparasitic group emerged from a partly endoparasitic group. In addition, a group with distinctly dimorphic conidia proved to be basal in the Phyllactinieae, and a group without distinctly dimorphic conidia was derived from that group. The present analyses clearly showed that Leveillula derived from a part of the "Basal Phyllactinia group". However, all sister taxa to Leveillula were distributed in North and South America. Because the putative geographic origin of Leveillula is assumed to be Central and Western Asia or the Mediterranean region, we postulate a missing link during the evolution of Leveillula from Phyllactinia Based on the present phylogenetic studies and the new rules of the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (McNeill et al. 2012), the following new species and taxonomic re-allocations are proposed: Phyllactinia bougainvilleae sp. nov., Ph. caricae comb. nov., Ph. caricicola comb. nov., Ph. durantae comb. nov., Ph. leveilluloides sp. nov., Ph. obclavata comb. nov., and Ph. papayae comb. nov.

Caespitotheca gen. nov., an ancestral genus in the Erysiphales.

The phylogenetic position of Uncinula forestalis within the Erysiphales has been inferred from 5.8S, 18S, and 28S rDNA sequences. Although the appendages of the ascomata are Uncinula-like, i.e. unbranched with curved-coiled apices, U. forestalis is situated at the very base of the large Erysiphales cluster, far from the 'Pseudoidium' clade (Erysiphe, including Microsphaera and Uncinula) and separate from the recently introduced basal genus Parauncinula. U. forestalis differs morphologically from the species of Erysiphe sect. Uncinula in having terminal, fasciculate (as in Podosphaera tridactyla), septate ascoma appendages and a Euoidium-like anamorph (conidia catenate). In Parauncinula, the appendages are also terminal but not fasciculate, the ascospores are curved, and the anamorph is lacking. Uncinula forestalis is a basal, tree-inhabiting powdery mildew with some additional ancestral characteristics, including Uncinula-like appendages and 6-8-spored asci. The new genus Caespitotheca gen. nov. is described with C. forestalis comb. nov. (syn. Uncinula forestalis) as the type species. We calculated the timing of the divergence of U. forestalis and P. septata using a molecular clock of the Erysiphales (6.5 x 10-10 changes per site per year in domains D1 and D2 of 28S rDNA) and a 28S rDNA data set. The results suggest that the divergence of U. forestalis and P. septata from other Ervsiphales occurred between 90 and 80 Myr ago; i.e. the divergence of the two ancestral species may have occurred in the late Cretaceous.