Baobabopsis, a new genus of graminicolous downy mildews from tropical Australia, with an updated key to the genera of downy mildews

Abstract

So far 19 genera of downy mildews have been described, of which seven are parasitic to grasses. Here, we introduce a new genus, Baobabopsis, to accommodate two distinctive downy mildews, B. donbarrettii sp. nov., collected on Perotis rara in northern Australia, and B. enneapogonis sp. nov., collected on Enneapogon spp. in western and central Australia. Baobabopsis donbarrettii produced both oospores and sporangiospores that are morphologically distinct from other downy mildews on grasses. Molecular phylogenetic analyses showed that the two species of Baobabopsis occupied an isolated position among the known genera of graminicolous downy mildews. The importance of the Poaceae for the evolution of downy mildews is highlighted by the observation that more than a third of the known genera of downy mildews occur on grasses, while more than 90 % of the known species of downy mildews infect eudicots.