Sudden death syndrome of soybean in South America is caused by four species of Fusarium: Fusarium brasiliense sp. nov., F. cuneirostrum sp. nov., F. tucumaniae, and F. virguliforme

Soybean sudden death syndrome (SDS) pathogens and dry bean root-rot pathogens were studied taxonomically, phylogenetically, and pathologically. Detailed phenotypic comparisons of macro- and microscopic features and phylogenetic analyses of multilocus DNA sequence data, including those on the nuclear ribosomal intergenic spacer region and the single copy nuclear gene translation elongation factor 1-a, indicated that they comprised five distinct species of Fusarium. Two new species causing soybean SDS in Brazil, F. brasiliense and F. cuneirostrum, are formally described. Fusarium cuneirostrum is responsible for soybean SDS in Brazil and dry bean or mung bean root-rot in the United States, Canada, and Japan. Strains of each species, including F. cuneirostrum isolates from dry bean and mung bean and F. phaseoli isolates from dry bean, were inoculated on soybean cultivar Pioneer 9492RR to determine their pathogenicity. Although intraspecific variation in pathogenicity was observed, all the species were able to induce typical SDS symptoms on soybean plants in the artificial inoculation tests. Comparisons of the key diagnostic morphological features reveal that all five species can be diagnosed using conidial morphology.