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Tilletia puccinelliae, a new species of reticulate-spored bunt fungus infecting Puccinellia distans

     ¹ Washington State University, Pullman, WA
² Plant Pathology, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, 99164-6430, United States of America
³ Tianjin Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau, Tanggu, Tianjin, China
⁴ Tianjin Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau, Tianjin, China
⁵ Systematic Botany and Mycology Lab, USDA ARS, Bldg 011A, RM 304, BARC-West, 10300 Baltimore Ave, Beltsville, MD, 20705, United States of America

A shipment of Fults alkaligrass seed (Puccinellia distans) grown in Washington state containing bunted florets was intercepted by quarantine officials at China's Tianjin Entry-Exit Quarantine and Inspection Bureau. The bunted florets were filled with irregularly shaped, reticulately ornamented teliospores that germinated in a manner characteristic of systemically-infecting Tilletia spp. on grass hosts in subfamily Pooideae. Based on morphological characters and a multigene phylogenetic analysis of the ITS region rDNA, eukaryotic translation elongation factor 1 alpha and a region of the second largest subunit of RNA polymerase II including a putative intein, the Puccinellia bunt is genetically distinct from from known species of Tilletia and is proposed as a new species, T. puccinelliae.

Key words: alkaligrass, cool season grass smuts, multigene phylogenetic analysis, Tilletiales