Phylogenetic placement and reassessment of Asperisporium pongamiae as Pedrocrousiella pongamiae gen. et comb. nov. ( Mycosphaerellaceae ).

The leaf spot disease of caused by an asperisporium-like asexual morph, which is usually referred to as , is quite common during monsoon seasons in India. Phylogenetic analyses, based on LSU and sequence data, and blast searches using ITS sequence data, revealed that this ascomycete forms a lineage within distant from all other generic lineages. , with , based on (≡ ), as type species is introduced for this lineage. This species has been considered the asexual morph of (≡ ). However, this connection is unproven and was just based on the occasional association of the two taxa in some collections. Several attempts to induce the formation of a sexual morph in culture failed, therefore the putative connection between these morphs could not be confirmed. - is reduced to synonymy with . - was introduced because of the wrong assumption that had been described on another host, . But was actually described in India on , which is a synonym of , and hence on the same host as . clusters in a clade containing , , and "" , a species which is not congeneric with . Phylogenetically, is distant from the clade (type species ), which is more closely related to , , and . Rajeshkumar KC, Braun U, Groenewald JZ, Lad SS, Ashtekar N, Fatima S, Anand G (2021). Phylogenetic placement and reassessment of as (). 165-176. doi: 10.3114/fuse.2021.07.08.