摘要

The genus Basidiophora has long been thought to contain only two species, Basidiophora entospora and Basidiophora kellermanii, the latter of which was transferred to a newly described monotypic genus, Benua, at the end of the twentieth century, leaving Basidiophora monotypic, despite its vast host range, including a member of the Eupatoriae and several genera in the subfamily Asteroideae of the Asteraceae. Using historic herbarium specimens, we demonstrate that while Benua kellermanii is genetically highly homogenous, at least seven distinct phylogenetic lineages exist within Basidiophora, which, based on sequence divergence, most likely constitute hitherto overlooked cryptic species. As the specimens from Symphyotrichum novae-angliae formed a well-supported clade with little variation, we consider Peronospora simplex described on this host as an independent species, which is transferred to the genus Basidiophora in this study. The phylogeny of the pathogens corresponds well to the phylogeny of the respective hosts, which is unusual in downy mildews and might hint at clade-limited colonisation and subsequent radiation to closely related hosts of Astereae or even suggest a co-evolution scenario. Our findings provide further evidence that species with assumed broad host ranges should be thoroughly evaluated with respect to their phylogenetic relationships, especially in biotrophic genera with only limited morphological diversity. In some cases, host specificity of genetically divergent lineages might be the only phenotypic trait remaining for species delimitation. Future detailed morphological comparisons are needed to reveal if the seemingly cryptic species of Basidiophora can be distinguished based on subtle morphological characteristics.