Genotypic diversity, plant selectivity and community composition of sooty mould symptom forming fungi in a Mata Atlântica relict rainforest

DFG RA 731/15-1

The aim of the envisaged collecting journey is to sample material of sooty mould symptom forming fungi for complementing data of an ongoing study on "Genotypic diversity, plant selectivity and community composition of sooty mould symptom forming fungi in a Mata Atlântica relict rainforest". Preliminary data based on material from a Mata Atlântica rainforest near Itabajana (Sergipe, NE Brazil) indicate that the most common fungal taxa forming sooty patches on the tree leaves belong to the genera Cladosporium, Pestalotiopsis, Capnodium, Phaeoseptoria, Phoma, Fusarium, Lasiodiplodia and others. Sooty patches on leaves in this study are nearly exclusively formed by oligo-species fungal communities. First results based on molecular and morphological examination of fungal isolates indicate that more or less stable fungal communities are formed. Preliminary statistics exhibit that the factor ‘leaf age’ does not group for fungal community composition. However, its community composition types significantly correlated with host plant taxonomy. For obtaining statistical significance additional material has to be examined. In addition, a metagenomic fingerprint analyses (‘ARISA’), will be performed with the collected material.