Molecular phylogeny of endophytic isolates of Ampelomyces from Iran based on rDNA ITS sequences.

During 2012, five isolates of pycnidial fungi were recovered from roots of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) plants in Iran. Based on morphological characteristics the presence of Ampelomyces was documented. To confirm morphological identification and clarify the placement of endophytic isolates of Ampelomyces, DNA was extracted from isolates using a genomic DNA purification Kit. Region of internal transcribed spacers 1, 2 and 5.8S genes of rDNA were amplified using ITS4 and ITS1 universal primer set. Amplicons were purified, sequenced and submitted to the GenBank. The resulting sequence (600 bp) was submitted to a BLAST search to find most similar sequences in GenBank. The ITS sequences of isolates obtained in Iran were compared to those of other related authentic sequences obtained from GenBank. Iranian endophytic isolates had 100 % similarity of among themselves, while all isolates of Ampelomyces sequences analyzed had an average of 95.2 % (range 87-100 %) similarity. When Ampelomyces ITS sequences were analyzed by both distance-based and maximum parsimony methods, the Ampelomyces isolates were segregate into 11 distinct clades. The ITS sequences of endophytic isolates obtained in Iran were identical with endophytic isolates from other country including USA, Australia, Hungary and Spain. Our analyses of phylogenetic data showed that endophytic isolates from Iran and other countries are distinct group. The high ITS sequence-divergence values and the phylogenetic analysis suggested the isolates of Ampelomyces in the clades are not closely related and indeed a problematic species complex.