Sporothrix ranii, a new wood-inhabiting fungus associated with date palm trees in Iran

In the winter of 2023 and during routine examinations of date palm trees in Safiabad, Dezful (Khuzestan Province, Iran), an intense white mass of fungal molds was observed on the leaf scars of the said trees. Purified isolates were subjected to morphological and molecular examinations. Typical morphological characteristics viz. single-celled, hyaline, smooth and obovate to ellipsoidal conidia arising by sympodial growth with basal scar prominent produced holoblastically on denticulate conidiogenous cells revealed that, all fungal isolates belong to the genus Sporothrix. Furthermore, based on a combination of morphological and sequence data of internal transcribed spacer (ITS) of rDNA, the recovered fungal isolates were determined as S. ranii. Therefore, based on the present information, it is the first report of this species for the funga of Iran and its second report in the world.