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A previous morphological study of Oidium anamorphs responsible for the recent tomato (Lycopersicon escuienrum) powdery mildew outbreaks worldwide suggested that, despite controversial data in the literature, the North American epidemics were caused solely by a newly erected species, O. neolycopersici. We report here the first molecular evidence that the North American anamorphs do belong to 0. neolycopersici. The internal transcribed spacer sequences of the North American anamorphs of this study were identical with those of three Japanese and four European specimens of O. neolycopersici. A morphological study confirmed that all the North American Oidium anamorphs included in this study produced conidia singly, similar to O. neolvcopersici. These fungi were readily distinguished from O. lycopersici, which produces conidia in chains and is known to infect tomato only in Australia. The phylogenetic analysis showed that O. neolycopersici is a distinct powdery mildew species, and it is neither identical nor closely related to any known polyphagous species of the Erysiphaceae. Apparently, it was introduced into the United States and Canada only in the l990s, but its origin is still unknown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]