Infectious fungal diseases can have devastating effects on wildlife
health and our ability to detect emerging fungal pathogens in the wild
is considered indispensable for effective management strategies. Several
fungi from the genus Nannizziopsis and Paranannizziopsis are emerging
pathogens of reptiles and have been observed to cause disease in a wide
range of taxa. Nannizziopsis barbatae has become a particularly
important pathogen of Australian reptiles with an increasing number of
herpetofauna being reported with cases of infection from across the
country. Here, we report a species-specific qPCR assay for the rapid
detection of N. barbatae and demonstrate its application in a wild urban
population of a dragon lizard. In addition, we present the mitochondrial
genome sequences and phylogenetic analysis for seven species in this
group of fungi to support further research into the evolutionary ecology
of these emerging pathogens.