doi:10.5598/imafungus.2011.02.02.07 IMA FUNGUS · VOLUME 2 · No 2: 163–171 The inclusion of downy mildews in a multi-locus-dataset and its reanalysis ARTICLE reveals a high degree of paraphyly in Phytophthora Fabian Runge1, Sabine Telle2,3, Sebastian Ploch2,3, Elizabeth Savory4, Brad Day4, Rahul Sharma2,3,5, and Marco Thines2,3,5 1University of Hohenheim, Institute of Botany 210, D-70593 Stuttgart, Germany 2Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F), Senckenberganlage 25, D-60325 Frankfurt am Main, Germany; corresponding author e-mail:
[email protected] 3Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung, Senckenberganlage 25, D-60325 Frankfurt am Main, Germany 4Michigan State University, Department of Plant Pathology, 104 Center for Integrated Plant Systems, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA 5Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, Department of Biological Sciences, Institute of Ecology, Evolution and Diversity, Siesmayerstr. 70, D-60323 Frankfurt (Main), Germany Abstract: Pathogens belonging to the Oomycota, a group of heterokont, fungal-like organisms, are amongst the Key words: most notorious pathogens in agriculture. In particular, the obligate biotrophic downy mildews and the hemibiotrophic AU test members of the genus Phytophthora are responsible for a huge variety of destructive diseases, including sudden downy mildews oak death caused by P. ramorum, potato late blight caused by P. infestans, cucurbit downy mildew caused by multigene phylogeny Pseudoperonospora cubensis, and grape downy mildew caused by Plasmopara viticola. About 800 species of Peronosporaceae downy mildews and roughly 100 species of Phytophthora are currently accepted, and recent studies have revealed Phytophthora that these groups are closely related. However, the degree to which Phytophthora is paraphyletic and where taxonomy exactly the downy mildews insert into this genus in relation to other clades could not be inferred with certainty to date.