The aim of this study was to determine the evolutionary time line for rust fungi and date key speciation events using a molecular clock. Evidence is provided that supports a contemporary view for a recent origin of rust fungi, with a common ancestor on a flowering plant. Divergence times for > 20 genera of rust fungi were studied with Bayesian evolutionary analyses. A relaxed molecular clock wa...

In this study, we analyzed distribution of species the genus Gymnosporangium in mountain regions Uzbekistan, including Western Tien Shan and Pamir-Alay. Four (G. confusum, G. sabinae, fusisporum, turkestanicum) are reported for Uzbekistan. The telial hosts these rust fungi Juniperus, while aecial Uzbekistan representatives genera Cotoneaster, Crataegus, Sorbus, Pyrus (all Rosaceae). It has been...

The genome size of the pine fusiform rust pathogen Cronartium quercuum f.sp. fusiforme (Cqf) was determined by flow cytometric analysis of propidium iodide-stained, intact haploid pycniospores with haploid spores of two genetically well characterized fungal species, Sclerotinia sclerotiorum and Puccinia graminis f.sp. tritici, as size standards. The Cqf haploid genome was estimated at ~90 Mb, s...