Identification and Characterization of Species Associated With Anthracnose in Anhui Province, China.

Recent advances in taxonomy have led to the need to conduct fresh surveys of species associated with important crops. Anthracnose caused by spp. is one of the destructive diseases on . In this study, a total of 22 representative isolates were obtained from diseased leaves of cultivated in four tea plantation regions in Anhui Province of China. The isolates were identified based on multilocus (, , , , , ) phylogenetic analyses, and their morphological characteristics were also analyzed. Twenty-one isolates belonging to complex were identified as , , and . One isolate belonging to complex was identified as . Pathogenicity tests revealed that the isolates of and were highly virulent when inoculated on the leaves of detached twigs of cv. Shuchazao. Furthermore, it was found that the interspecies virulence was less distinct and individual isolates showed varied virulence when inoculated on different varieties of . To our knowledge, this is the first report of , , and causing anthracnose on in Anhui Province, China.