Abstract
Pestalotiopsis
is a taxonomically confused, pathogenic and chemically creative genus requiring a critical re-examination using a multi-gene phylogeny based on ex-type and ex-epitype cultures. In this study 40 isolates of
Pestalotiopsis
, comprised of 28 strains collected from living and dead plant material of various host plants from China were studied by means of morphology and analysis of ITS, β–tubulin and
tef1
gene sequence data. Based on molecular and morphological data we describe 14 new species (
Pestalotiopsis asiatica
,
P. chinensis
,
P. chrysea
,
P. clavata
,
P. diversiseta
,
P. ellipsospora
,
P. inflexa
,
P. intermedia
,
P. linearis
,
P. rosea
,
P. saprophyta
,
P. umberspora
,
P. unicolor
and
P. verruculosa
) and three species are epitypified (
P. adusta
,
P. clavispora
and
P. foedans
). Of the 10 gene regions (ACT, β-tubulin, CAL, GPDH, GS, ITS, LSU, RPB 1, SSU and
tef1
) utilized to resolve cryptic
Pestalotiopsis
species, ITS, β–tubulin and
tef1
proved to be the better markers. The other gene regions were less useful due to poor success in PCR amplification and/or in their ability to resolve species boundaries. As a single gene
tef1
met the requirements for an ideal candidate and functions well for species delimitation due to its better species resolution and PCR success. Although β-tubulin showed fairly good differences among species, a combination of ITS, β-tubulin and
tef1
gene data gave the best resolution as compared to single gene analysis. This work provides a backbone tree for 22 ex-type/epitypified species of
Pestalotiopsis
and can be used in future studies of the genus.