New species of Fusarium associated with dieback of Spartina alterniflora in Atlantic salt marshes.

Sudden vegetation dieback (SVD) is the loss of smooth cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora) along intertidal creeks in salt marshes of the Atlantic and Gulf states. The underlying cause of SVD remains unclear, but earlier work suggested a contributing role for Fusarium spp. in Louisiana. This report investigated whether these or other Fusarium species were associated with S. alterniflora dieback in mid- to north-Atlantic states. Isolations from seven SVD sites yielded 192 isolates of Fusarium spp., with more than 75% isolated from aboveground tissue. Most isolates (88%) fell into two undescribed morphospecies (MS) distinguished from each other by macroconidial shape, phialide ontogeny and growth rates. Pathogenicity tests on wound-inoculated S. alterniflora stems and seedling roots revealed that isolates in MS1 were more virulent than those in MS2 but no single isolate caused plant mortality. No matches to known species of Fusarium were revealed by DNA sequence queries of translation elongation factor 1-α (tef1) sequences. A phylogenetic analysis of partial sequences of three genes, β-tubulin (β-tub), calmodulin (cal) and tef1, was conducted on representative isolates from MS1 (n = 20) and MS2 (n = 18); it provided strong evidence that the MS1 isolates form a clade that represents a heretofore undescribed species, which we designate Fusarium palustre sp. nov. Isolates from the more variable MS2 clustered with the F. incarnatum-equiseti species complex as F. cf. incarnatum. Although a strong association exists between both species and declining S. alterniflora in SVD sites, neither appears to play a primary causal role in SVD. However, our findings suggest that F. palustre might play an important secondary role in the ecological disruption of the salt marshes.