Taxonomic evaluation of a bioherbicidal isolate of albifimbria verrucaria, formerly myrothecium verrucaria

Abstract

The fungal genus Myrothecium was once polyphyletic but a recent reconsideration of the family Stachybotryaceae spilt it into several genera. The ex-neotype specimen of the species Myrothe-cium verrucaria is now recognized as Albifimbria verrucaria. The well-studied plant pathogen and candidate bioherbicide CABI-IMI 368023, previously identified as M. verrucaria, was analyzed mor-phologically and genetically and found to be most consistently aligned with the other representa-tives of A. verrucaria.