CHARACTERIZATION OF TILLETIA-GOLOSKOKOVII AND ALLIED SPECIES

Isolates of Tilletia goloskokovii infecting Apera interrupta collected in the Pacific Northwest were characterized and compared to the T. fu sca complex and related taxa. The previous known distribution of T. go loskokovii is based on one collection from Kazakhstan; the 24 isolates from the Pacific Northwest represent the first report of this species in North America. Comparison of teliospore morphology, host range, ra ndomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and restriction fragment lengt h polymorphisms (RFLP) of the ITS region showed that T. goloskokovii i s distinct from the European species, T. sepal ata, the only other smu t fungus infecting an Apera host. Mean length, width, depth of reticul ations and meshes per teliospore diameter were significantly different between T. separata and T. goloskokovii. RAPD analysis indicated that T. goloskokovii is more similar to T. separata than to the T. fusca. complex. Two major clusters were separated in the dendrogram based on RAPD analysis, one cluster with isolates of T. controversa, brome-infe cting varieties of T. fusca, and the Apera-infecting isolates, and a s econd cluster with Vulpia-infecting isolates of T. Fusca. Tilletia sph aerococca and T. menieri, morphologically similar but distinct taxa, w ere compared to T. separata and T. goloskokovii. The importance of con sidering host specificity and molecular characters in addition to morp hological characters in delimiting discrete taxa in the genus Tilletia is discussed.