Families in Botryosphaeriales: a phylogenetic, morphological and evolutionary perspective

Botryosphaeriales was introduced in 2006 for a single family Botryosphaeriaceae. Since then the number of families has increased as a result of the transfer of one family (Planistromellaceae) into the order, re-instatement of another (Phyllostictaceae), while others resulted from raising genera to family status (Aplosporellaceae, Endomelanconiopsisaceae, Melanopsaceae, Pseudofusicoccumaceae, Saccharataceae and Septorioideaceae). All these decisions were based solely on phylogenetic analyses of several different loci. There has been no consensus on which loci are suitable markers at this taxonomic level and in some cases the datasets used to construct the phylogenies were incomplete. In this paper, the families of Botryosphaeriales were re-assessed in terms of morphology of the sexual morphs, phylogenetic relationships based on ITS and LSU sequence data, and evolutionary divergence times of lineages in relation to major events in the evolution of their hosts on a geological timescale. Six main lineages were resolved in the phylogenetic analyses and these correspond to six groups as defined on morphology of the sexual morphs. These lineages evolved during the Late epoch of the Cretaceous period and survived the catastrophic event that led to the mass extinction of non-avian dinosaurs and a great loss of plant diversity at the end of the Cretaceous period. They then diversified during the Paleocene and Eocene epochs of the Paleogene period. These six lineages are considered to represent families in Botryosphaeriales. Therefore, six families (Aplosporellaceae, Botryosphaeriaceae, Melanopsaceae, Phyllostictaceae, Planistromellaceae and Saccharataceae) are accepted in Botryosphaeriales, while three (Endomelanconiopsisaceae, Pseudofusicoccumaceae and Septorioideaceae) are reduced to synonymy under existing families.