The objective of the work was to analyze the diversity, trichothecene-producing and wheat-disease-causing capacity of the Fusarium sambucinum species complex (FSAMSC) by examining 171 strains.

Some strains can also cause Fusarium Head Blight, which results in serious economic damage.

The new species are available at the National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research (NCAUR), which has one of the world's largest public collections of microbes (about 98,000 different strains of bacteria, yeasts and fungi) that can be used to breed resistant crops, create disease monitoring methods, to find and stop the spread of novel invasive infections and to evaluate potential chemical and biological controls.