Botryosphaeriaceae species associated with the pickly pear cactus, Nopalea cochenillifera

The production of cactus prickly pear (Nopalea cochenillifera) as a foraging plant in the Brazilian Northeastern region is limited by diseases for which knowledge of etiology and diversity of pathogens is scarce. In this work Botryosphaeriaceae fungi isolated from cladode spots of cactus prickly pear were characterized based on morphology and phylogeny using on partial nucleotide sequences of ITS-rDNA, EF1-α e β-tub. Four species were identified, of which three caused a brown spot, Lasiodiplodia theobromae, L. jatrophicola and Neofusicoccum batangarum and one, Neoscytalidium hyalinum, caused a squamous spot firstly reported to occur in N. cochenillifera. We report for the first time worldwide L. jatrophicola and N. hyalinum species causing spots on cactus prickly pear.