Two new species of Diaporthe (Diaporthaceae, Diaporthales) from Actinidia chinensis in Guizhou Province, China

Diaporthe spp. are well known to be plant pathogens, endophytes, or saprophytes on a wide range of economically significant crops, ornamental plants, and forest trees. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the diversity of Diaporthe species, which cause kiwifruit soft rot in Guizhou Province. Five strains of fungi were isolated from kiwifruit infected with soft rot in Guizhou province.

These strains were identified using morphological and multilocus sequences analysis of the rDNA internal transcribed spacer region (ITS), calmodulin (cal), histone H 3 (his 3), translation elongation factor 1 - alpha (tef 1), and β-tubulin (tub 2). The results confirmed two new species – D. shuichengensis sp. nov. and D. liupanshuiensis sp. nov. This study identifies two new soft-rot pathogens of kiwifruit and provides a reference for future disease-management studies.