Diplodia sapinea : the main fungal species involved in the colonization of pine shoots in Italy

Summary Damage to various forest tree species caused by D iplodia sapinea has been reported in Italy since the early 20th century. However, until recently, systematic characterization of this microorganism, based on DNA sequence data, has been limited with only a general description of the fungus in the majority of the reports. To address this and provide a more accurate identification of D iplodia species associated on pine in Italy, we examined a total of 88 B otryosphaeriaceae isolates obtained from symptomatic and asymptomatic material from different hosts located in different geographical regions of Italy. Using molecular analysis, we were able to identify 67 isolates of D . sapinea and eight isolates of D . seriata . D iplodia sapinea was dominant on P . nigra shoots and was also detected on P . halepensis, P . pinea, P . pinaster, P . radiata and P . sylvestris , while D . seriata and other B otryosphaeriaceae appeared to be only occasionally present on shoots. The remaining 13 isolates represented nine different B otryosphaeriaceae species, occurring at low levels. Analysis of molecular variance ( amova ) based on DAMD ‐ PCR profiles detected low significant differences among D . sapinea isolates from the different sampling areas throughout Italy.