2009a, b; Mugambi and Huhndorf 2009b; Schoch et al. 2009; Shearer et al. 2009; Suetrong et al. 2009; Tanaka et al. 2009; Zhang et al. 2009a) (Table 1). In addition, another JNK signaling inhibitor five families, i.e. Arthopyreniaceae, Cucurbitariaceae, Diademaceae, Teichosporaceae and Zopfiaceae are

tentatively included (Kruys et al. 2006; Plate 1). In the most recent issue of Myconet, 28 families were included in Pleosporales (Lumbsch and Huhndorf 2010). Plate 1 The best scoring likelihood tree of representative Pleosporales obtained with RAxML v. 7.2.7 for a concatenated set of nucleotides from LSU, SSU, RPB2 and TEF1. Family and suborder names are indicated where possible. The percentages of nodes present in 250 bootstrap pseudo replicates are shown above branches. Culture and voucher numbers are indicated after species names and the presence of the genes used in the analysis are indicated by pluses in this order: LSU, SSU, RPB2, TEF1 Species included in Pleosporales have different ecological or morphological characters. For instance, OSI-906 clinical trial members FK228 cost of the Leptosphaeriaceae have saprobic or parasitic lifestyles and lightly pigmented, multi-septate ascospores. Members of the Lophiostomataceae are mostly saprobic with ascomata that usually possess a compressed apex. Members of Sporormiaceae are coprophilous, and are

characterized by heavily pigmented, multi-septate ascospores with germ slits, and with or without non-periphysate ostioles. The lack of DNA sequence data for representatives of numerous families see more means that their inter-relationships are unclear and many genera or species are artificially placed

based on morphological classification. The most recent study on Venturiaceae indicated that this group had a set of unique morphological and ecological characters, which is distinct and distantly related to other members of Pleosporales (Kruys et al. 2006; Zhang et al. unpublished). Molecular phylogenetic results indicated that members of Venturiaceae form a robust clade separate from the core members of Pleosporales, and the clade of Venturiaceae was uncertainly placed but outside of the two currently designated dothideomycetous subclasses, i.e. Pleosporomycetidae and Dothideomycetidae (Schoch et al. 2009). In addition, phylogenetic analysis of rDNA sequence data indicates that members of Zopfiaceae (as Testudinaceae) seem to lack affinity with Pleosporales (Kodsueb et al. 2006 b). Thus, 26 families are temporarily accepted in Pleosporales in this study, although some such as Zopfiaceae, still require extensive DNA sequence sampling (Table 4). Morpho-characters used in taxonomy of Pleosporales Sexual characters According to the Linnean classification system, reproductive structures are the most important criteria in plant taxonomy, and this proposal is widely applied in fungal taxonomy (Gäumann 1952).