International Journal of Molecular Sciences Article A New Subclade of Leptosphaeria biglobosa Identified from Brassica rapa Zhongwei Zou 1, Xuehua Zhang 1, Paula Parks 1, Lindsey J. du Toit 2 , Angela P. Van de Wouw 3 and W. G. Dilantha Fernando 1,* 1 Department of Plant Science, University of Manitoba, 66 Dafoe Road, Winnipeg, MB R3T 2N2, Canada;
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[email protected]; Tel.: +1-204-474-6072 Received: 16 February 2019; Accepted: 27 March 2019; Published: 3 April 2019 Abstract: Blackleg (Phoma stem canker) of crucifers is a globally important disease caused by the ascomycete species complex comprising of Leptosphaeria maculans and Leptosphaeria biglobosa. Six blackleg isolates recovered from Brassica rapa cv. Mizspoona in the Willamette Valley of Oregon were characterized as L. biglobosa based on standard pathogenicity tests and molecular phylogenetic analysis. These isolates were compared to 88 characterized L. biglobosa isolates from western Canada, 22 isolates from Australia, and 6 L. maculans isolates from Idaho, USA using maximum parsimony and distance analysis of phylogenetic trees generated from the ITS rDNA (internal transcribed spacer rDNA) sequence, and the actin and b-tubulin gene sequences. The L. biglobosa isolates derived from B. rapa collected in Oregon formed a separate subclade based on concatenated gene sequences or a single gene sequence, regardless of the analyses.