Sequence alignment for 7 gene regions for new Phytophthora species in clade 2a

<p>Five new taxa from <i>Phytophthora</i> ITS Clade 2a are described from <i>Cinnamomum cassia</i> plantations and adjacent waterways in Van Yen, Vietnam, and disturbed rainforest in the Hela Province of Papua New Guinea and from disturbed forest on Christmas Island. Phylogenetic analyses were performed using data from nuclear regions (ITS, β-tubulin; Heat shock protein 90) and mitochondrial regions (cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1; cytochrome c oxidase subunit2; NADH dehydrogenase subunit 1; ribosomal protein L10). The molecular data supported recognition of three species: <i>Phytophthora insulinativitatica, P. multibullata </i>and <i>P. </i>x<i> vanyenensis</i> and two informal taxa, <i>P.</i> sp. germisporangia and <i>P.</i> sp. awatangi. <i>P. </i>x<i> vanyenensis</i> appears to be a hybrid between <i>P. </i>sp<i>. mekongensis</i> and an unknown species. <i>P. multibullata </i>and<i> P</i>. sp. germisporangia are phylogenetically close to <i>P. citrophthora,</i> but morphologically distinct. <i>P. insulinativitatica</i> is most closely related to <i>P. botryosa </i>but has different morphology.<b> </b><i>P.</i> sp. germisporangia and <i>P.</i> sp. awatangi were morphologically distinct and separated in the phylogeny based on mitochondrial sequences, but their nuclear sequences were identical. When comparing the sequences of these new species to that available on GenBank, it became evident that some of these species shared similarity with isolates submitted to GenBank under other species names and a re-evaluation of all P<i>. meadii</i> and <i>P. colocasiae</i> ITS sequence data identified an additional 7 putatively new species all isolated from Asia. The results support the view that many more <i>Phytophthora</i> species remain to be discovered in the Asia-Pacific region.</p>