First report of Ramichloridium punctatum in the Middle East and the first record of the genus Ramichloridium for Iran

Ramichloridium is a genus of dematiaceous hyphomycetes which belongs to the family Dissoconiaceae in the order Mycosphaerellales. In a survey of fungi associated with leaf spot symptoms of various plants in the north of Iran, an isolate of the genus Ramichloridium was recovered from leaves of Sesbania punicea (Cav.) Benth. Integration of morphological characteristics and sequence data obtained from the LSU, ITS and tef1 loci were applied to identify this isolate. The results revealed that the isolate belongs to a species of the genus Ramichloridium, namely, R. punctatum. This is the first report of Dissoconiaceae and genus Ramichloridium for funga of Iran and first record of the species R. punctatum for funga of the Middle East region. In addition, S. punicea represents first host record for the R. punctatum in the world.