3rd Edition Of Plant Science and Molecular Biology World Conference 2026

Abstract

(1) The fungal genus Simplicillium (Cordycipitaceae: Hypocreales) has an extensive distribution and a broad spectrum of hosts and substrates. Simplicillium lanosoniveum is a mycoparasite with the potential for biological control of coffee leaf rust, Hemileia vastatrix. Morphologically, Simplicillium closely resembles mycoparasitic and entomopathogenic Lecanicillium fungi, often resulting in misidentification. A fungal isolate was obtained from leaf-rust-infested coffee plants from Cienfuegos Province, Cuba. (2) Combined analyses of morphology and molecular markers (ITS, LSU, EF-1alpha) were used for fungal identification. (3) In the reconstructed NJ, ML, and BI phylogenies, the isolate LBSim-01 was located in the Simplicillium lanosoniveum clade. Morphological features supported this species-level identification. (4) The isolate LBSim-01 was assigned to the species Simplicillium lanosoniveum. This is the first description of a Simplicillium fungus associated with coffee leaf rust in Cuba. The presented results hold implications for the biological control of this economically relevant plant disease.
Keywords: Simplicillium; mycoparasitic fungi; Hemileia vastatrix; phylogeny; molecular taxonomy; internal transcribed spacer; LSU; translation elongation factor 1 alpha