Morphological and molecular Characterization of Pythium s.l. species from Khyber Pakthunkhwa province, Pakistan, with some new records and description of Globisporangium ghaffarianum sp. nov.

Abstract

Pythium s.l. is an ecologically important taxon of the phylum Oomycota that lives in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems as saprobes. Many species are facultative parasites of plants, causing losses worldwide. Thirty-six putative isolates of the genus from the District Bajaur were characterised morphologically and molecularly during the present studies. Globisporangium ghaffarianum sp. nov. is introduced as a novel taxon. Besides this, G. orthogonon, G. paroecandrum, G. selbyi, G. schmitthenneri, Pythium kashmirense, P. aristosporum, and Phytopythium helicoides are new records for Pakistan. Globisporangium ultimum var. ultimum, Pythium dissotocum, P. catenulatum, P. acanthicum, P. oligandrum, Phytopythium sindhum, Ph. vexans, and Ph. litorale are new records for the province.