Unravelling Unexplored Diversity of Cercosporoid Fungi (Mycosphaerellaceae, Mycosphaerellales, Ascomycota) in Tropical Africa

Cercosporoid fungi (Mycosphaerellaceae, Mycosphaerellales, Ascomycota) are one of the largest and most diverse groups of hyphomycetes causing a wide range of diseases of economically important plants as well as of plants in the wild. Although more than 6000 species are known for this group, the documentation of this fungal group is far from complete. Especially in the tropics, the diversity of cercosporoid fungi is poorly known. The present study aims to identify and characterise cercosporoid fungi collected on host plants belonging to Fabaceae in Benin, West Africa. Information on their morphology, host species and DNA sequence data (18S rDNA, 28S rDNA, ITS and ) is provided. DNA sequence data were obtained by a simple and non-culture-based method for DNA isolation which has been applied for cercosporoid fungi for the first time in the context of the present study. Among the loci used for the phylogenetic analysis, provided the best resolution together with the multigene dataset. Species delimitation in many cases, however, was only possible by combining molecular sequence data with morphological characteristics. Based on forty specimens recently collected in Benin, 18 species are presented with morphological descriptions, illustrations and sequence data. Among these, six species in the genus and two species in are proposed as species new to science. The newly described species are Cercospora (C.) beninensis on , on , on , - on , on , on , on and on . Eight species of cercosporoid fungi are reported for Benin for the first time, three of them, namely C. cf. canscorina, C. cf. fagopyri and are new for West Africa. The presence of two species of cercosporoid fungi on Fabaceae previously reported from Benin, namely and , is confirmed.