Species of Colletotrichum associated with citrus trees in Iran

Colletotrichum species are associated with citrus plants as pathogens, saprobes and endophytes. According to the most recent multigene phylogenetic analysis, a lot of changes were happened in the taxonomy and species delimitation in the genus Colletotrichum. In this investigation, 292 Colletotrichum isolates were obtained from leaves, fruits and stems of Citrus species at Golestan, Mazandaran, Guilan and Kerman provinces. After morphological studies, a multilocus molecular phylogenetic analysis (TUB2, CHS–1, CAL) of 13 isolates were carried out. Based on the morphological and molecular data, five species including C. gloeosporioides s. s., C. fructicola and C. siamense (from C. gloeosporioides s. l.); C. karstii and C. novae zelandiae(from C. boninense s. l.) were identified. According to our knowledge, this is the first report of C. novae–zelandiae from Iran and C. siamense and C. karstii from citrus plants in the country.