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A recent study published in the New Disease Reports journal has identified Melampsora ferrinii as the cause of rust disease on Corydalis incisa, commonly known as incised fumewort, in Korea. This is the first recorded instance of M. ferrinii affecting C. incisa in Korea. The study found that the spread of C. incisa, driven by global climate change, could potentially lead to the occurrence of M. ferrinii on Salix species, which could result in ecological and economic damage. This research highlights the importance of monitoring and managing the spread of invasive species in the face of climate change. [Extracted from the article]

Melampsora epitea(Pucciniales, Basidiomycota) has been widely known as the main rust pathogen on willows, but its species boundary has been extremely confusing.Melampsora epiteawas often confused with several morphologically similar species, such asM. arctica, M. humilis, andM. epiphylla. Recent DNA-based studies using specimens from North America and Europe suggested thatM. epiteawas a complex of several phylogenetic species. In this study, we examined the species boundary ofM. epiteabased on rDNA phylogeny and the general mixed Yule coalescent (GMYC) model from 534 specimens. Twelve distinct species corresponding to 10 known species and 2 new species were recognized from East Asian specimens. We also evaluated the association of morphological characteristics, geographic origins, and host ranges with phylogenetic relationships. Our results revealed that several previously overlooked morphological characters in uredinial and telial stages were informative in delimitingM. epiteaand allied species. Two novel species,M. salicis-futuraeandM. salicis-triandrae, are described and compared with closely related species. A lectotype forM. epiteaand epitypes forM. epitea, M. epiphylla, andM. humilisare designated to stabilize the use of names. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Two new species of rust fungi, Melampsora salicis- purpureae sp. nov. and M. salicis- argyraceae sp. nov., and a new record, M. iranica, are described from China based on morphological characteristics and molecular phylogeny of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS1 and ITS2) regions including 5.8S of the ribosomal RNA gene. Melampsora salicis- purpureae on Salix purpurea was characterized by amphigenous uredinia, subepidermal teliospores, and relatively shorter teliospores and amphigenous telia. Melampsora salicis- argyraceae on S. argyaceae possessed sparse spines on urediniospores, epiphyllous telia and subepidermal teliospores with slightly thickened apex. In addition, specimens on S. alba and S. psammophyla were identified as M. iranica. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rust fungi in the genus Melampsora usually cause disease on hosts in the Salicaceae. Identification of Melampsora species is often complicated due to few differences in spore morphology and little publicly available comparative sequence data. Weeping willow trees (primarily Salix babylonica and its hybrids) have been reported to be infected by 11 Melampsora species; however, most of these records are based on morphological characterization. New collections of rust fungi on weeping willows from the central USA were analysed using a combination of morphology, ITS and LSU r DNA sequencing, and host data to determine that they represent an undescribed rust fungus, Melampsora ferrinii sp. nov. Additional studies of herbarium material revealed that M. ferrinii has occasionally been collected but identified as M. epitea. In addition to North America, M. ferrinii is also present in South America and has been infecting weeping willows there since at least the 1990s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]