Assessment of Isolates From Conifer Cankers in China, With the Descriptions of Four New Species.

species are widely distributed and often occur as endophytes, saprobes or phytopathogens. They primarily cause canker and dieback diseases of woody host plants, leading to the growth weakness or death of host plants, thereby causing significant economic and ecological losses. In order to reveal the diversity of species associated with canker and dieback diseases of coniferous trees in China, we assessed 11 spp. represented by 28 fungal strains from symptomatic branches or twigs of coniferous trees, i.e., in China. Through morphological observations and multilocus phylogeny of ITS, LSU, α, and gene sequences, we focused on four novel species (, and ) associated with . This study represented the first attempt to clarify the taxonomy of species associated with canker and dieback symptoms of coniferous trees in China.