The Genus <i>Aureobasidium</i> From Sooty Mould Communities in Poland, Including <i>A. epipinicola</i> sp. nov. and <i>A. insectorum</i> , New to Europe

ABSTRACT The genus Aureobasidium contains numerous species inhabiting diverse habitats, including plants, where they live as saprobes, epiphytes, endophytes or pathogens. Sooty moulds are epiphytes forming multispecies communities on the surface of leaves or needles covered with exudates of some insects. On leaves and needles, they form black coatings and therefore have a negative impact on plants due to the reduction of photosynthesis and foliar gas exchange. Additionally, they decrease the visual aesthetic qualities of ornamental plants in urban environments. In temperate climates, sooty moulds were previously commonly assigned to the species Fumago vagans , which was proven to belong to two different species, Aureobasidium pullulans and Cladosporium herbarum . A. pullulans was indeed reported from sooty mould communities based on morphological features or using sequences of a single locus (ITS). In this study, 32 strains of Aureobasidium isolated from sooty mould communities covering leaves/needles of six ornamental woody plants from municipal greenery in Poland were subjected to multilocus (ITS, LSU, rpb2 , tef1 , tub2 ) phylogenetic analyses and morphological analyses in order to resolve their species assignment. Thirty strains were identified as A. pullulans but one strain belonged to an undescribed species A . epipinicola , and one strain was assigned to A . insectorum , a species recently described from China. This study confirms that A . pullulans is a constant inhabitant of sooty mould communities in temperate regions and reports that other Aureobasidium species may also be involved in this disease complex.