The genus Cercospora is one of the major fungal pathogens commonly associated with leaf spot disease on a wide range of plants worldwide, possessing considerable phytopathological significance. Cercospora species have also been found on plants of the ...
The genus Cercospora is one of the major fungal pathogens commonly associated with leaf spot disease on a wide range of plants worldwide, possessing considerable phytopathological significance. Cercospora species have also been found on plants of the genus Disporum. Among them, D. smilacinum and D. viridescens are primarily distributed in Southeast Asia, particularly in Korea. Notably, Cercospora infections on these two host plants have been reported only from Korea and Japan. The Cercospora species occurring on Disporum plants has been identified as C. dispori, which is known to exhibit host specificity to D. smilacinum and D. viridescens. This fungus shows host specificity on D. smilacinum and D. viridescens, identified as C. dispori. However, the previously reported data were incomplete, lacking either morphological or molecular information. Moreover, no type strain has been designated, and only a single CBS isolate has been reported, which limits the reliability of this species identification. Therefore, in this study, we compiled and re-evaluated the existing records of Cercospora dispori associated with D. smilacinum and D. viridescens to establish a standardized framework for the accurate characterization and identification of this species. Specimens were collected from more than three regions in Korea for each host species, D. smilacinum and D. viridescens, and the pathogens were isolated and identified. The morphological characteristics of stromata, conidiophores, conidia, and septa were examined in the morphological analysis. Phylogenetic analyses were conducted using five nuclear loci (ITS, actA, cmdA, his3, and tef1) with the maximum likelihood (ML) method implemented in RAxML-GUI 2.0.14, which based on the GAMMA model with the GTR substitution. The multilocus phylogenetic analysis revealed that the isolates obtained from D. smilacinum and D. viridescens formed a single well-supported clade, demonstrating their host specificity. This study emphasizes the necessity of analyzing multiple isolates for accurate pathogen diagnosis. And systematically demonstrates the importance of integrating morphological and molecular data for the reliable identification of plant pathogenic fungi, including C. dispori.