First Report of Stem Canker of Interspecific Impatiens Hybrids Caused by Macrophomina phaseolina in the United States

Salsola tragus L. (Russian thistle) is a problematic invasive weed in the western United States and a target of biological control efforts. In September of 2007, dying S. tragus plants were found along the Azov Sea at Chushka, Russia. Dying plants had irregular, necrotic, canker-like lesions near the base of the stems and most stems showed girdling and cracking. Stem lesions were dark brown and contained brown pycnidia within and extending along lesion-free sections of the stems and basal portions of leaves. Diseased stems were cut into 3- to 5-mm pieces and disinfested in 70% ethyl alcohol. After drying, stem pieces were placed into petri dishes on the surface of potato glucose agar. Numerous, dark, immersed erumpent pycnidia with a single ostiole were observed in all lesions after 2 to 3 days. Axenic cultures were sent to the Foreign Disease-Weed Science Research Unit, USDA, ARS, Ft. Detrick, MD for testing in quarantine. Conidiophores were simple, cylindrical, and 5 to 25 × 2 μm (mean 12 × 2 μm). Alpha conidia were biguttulate, one-celled, hyaline, nonseptate, ovoid, and 6.3 to 11.5 × 1.3 to 2.9 μm (mean 8.8 × 2.0 μm). Beta conidia were one-celled, filiform, hamate, hyaline, and 11.1 to 24.9 × 0.3 to 2.5 μm (mean 17.7 × 1.2 μm). The isolate was morphologically identified as a species of Phomopsis, the conidial state of Diaporthe (1). The teleomorph was not observed. A comparison with available sequences in GenBank using BLAST found 528 of 529 identities with the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequence of an authentic and vouchered Diaporthe eres Nitschke (GenBank DQ491514; BPI 748435; CBS 109767). Morphology is consistent with that of Phomopsis oblonga (Desm.) Traverso, the anamorph of D. eres (2). Healthy stems and leaves of 10 30-day-old plants of S. tragus were spray inoculated with an aqueous suspension of conidia (1.0 × 106 alpha conidia/ml plus 0.1% v/v polysorbate 20) harvested from 14-day-old cultures grown on 20% V8 juice agar. Another 10 control plants were sprayed with water and surfactant without conidia. Plants were placed in an environmental chamber at 100% humidity (rh) for 16 h with no lighting at 25°C. After approximately 24 h, plants were transferred to a greenhouse at 20 to 25°C, 30 to 50% rh, and natural light. Stem lesions developed on three inoculated plants after 14 days and another three plants after 21 days. After 70 days, all inoculated plants were diseased, four were dead, and three had more than 75% diseased tissue. No symptoms occurred on control plants. The Phomopsis state was recovered from all diseased plants. This isolate of D. eres is a potential biological control agent of S. tragus in the United States. A voucher specimen has been deposited with the U.S. National Fungus Collections (BPI 878717). Nucleotide sequences for the ribosomal ITS regions (ITS 1 and 2) were deposited in GenBank (Accession No. EU805539). To our knowledge, this is the first report of stem canker on S. tragus caused by D. eres. References: (1) B. C. Sutton. Page 569 in: The Coelomycetes. CMI, Kew, Surrey, UK, 1980. (2) L. E. Wehmeyer. The Genus Diaporthe Nitschke and its Segregates. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, 1933.

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First Report of Leaf Blight and Stem Canker of Pachysandra terminalis Caused by Pseudonectria pachysandricola in Korea

Plant Disease ◽

10.1094/pdis-09-11-0813 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 96 (2) ◽

pp. 287-287

Author(s):

K. S. Han ◽

J. H. Park ◽

S. E. Cho ◽

H. D. Shin

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Its Region ◽

Stem Canker ◽

The United States ◽

Culture Collection ◽

Leaf Blight ◽

First Report ◽

Cornell University ◽

Plastic Bags ◽

Young Leaves

Pachysandra terminalis Siebold & Zucc., known as Japanese pachysandra, is a creeping evergreen perennial belonging to the family Buxaceae. In April 2011, hundreds of plants showing symptoms of leaf blight and stem canker with nearly 100% incidence were found in a private garden in Suwon, Korea. Plants with the same symptoms were found in Seoul in May and Hongcheon in August. Affected leaves contained tan-to-yellow brown blotches. Stem and stolon cankers first appeared as water soaked and developed into necrotic lesions. Sporodochia were solitary, erumpent, circular, 50 to 150 μm in diameter, salmon-colored, pink-orange when wet, and with or without setae. Setae were hyaline, acicular, 60 to 100 μm long, and had a base that was 4 to 6 μm wide. Conidiophores were in a dense fascicle, not branched, hyaline, aseptate or uniseptate, and 8 to 20 × 2 to 3.5 μm. Conidia were long, ellipsoid to cylindric, fusiform, rounded at the apex, subtruncate at the base, straight to slightly bent, guttulate, hyaline, aseptate, 11 to 26 × 2.5 to 4.0 μm. A single-conidial isolate formed cream-colored colonies that turned into salmon-colored colonies on potato dextrose agar (PDA). Morphological and cultural characteristics of the fungus were consistent with previous reports of Pseudonectria pachysandricola B.O. Dodge (1,3,4). Voucher specimens were housed at Korea University (KUS). Two isolates, KACC46110 (ex KUS-F25663) and KACC46111 (ex KUS-F25683), were accessioned in the Korean Agricultural Culture Collection. Fungal DNA was extracted with DNeasy Plant Mini DNA Extraction Kits (Qiagen Inc., Valencia, CA). The complete internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of rDNA was amplified with the primers ITS1/ITS4 and sequenced using ABI Prism 337 automatic DNA sequencer (Applied Biosystems, Foster, CA). The resulting sequence of 487 bp was deposited in GenBank (Accession No. JN797821). This showed 100% similarity with a sequence of P. pachysandricola from the United States (HQ897807). Isolate KACC46110 was used in pathogenicity tests. Inoculum was prepared by harvesting conidia from 2-week-old cultures on PDA. Ten young leaves wounded with needles were sprayed with conidial suspensions (~1 × 106 conidia/ml). Ten young leaves that served as the control were treated with sterile distilled water. Plants were covered with plastic bags to maintain a relative humidity of 100% at 25 ± 2°C for 24 h. Typical symptoms of brown spots appeared on the inoculated leaves 4 days after inoculation and were identical to the ones observed in the field. P. pachysandricola was reisolated from 10 symptomatic leaf tissues, confirming Koch's postulates. No symptoms were observed on control plants. Previously, the disease was reported in the United States, Britain, Japan, and the Czech Republic (2,3), but not in Korea. To our knowledge, this is the first report of P. pachysandricola on Pachysandra terminalis in Korea. Since this plant is popular and widely planted in Korea, this disease could cause significant damage to nurseries and the landscape. References: (1) B. O. Dodge. Mycologia 36:532, 1944. (2) D. F. Farr and A. Y. Rossman. Fungal Databases. Systematic Mycology and Microbiology Laboratory, ARS, USDA. Retrieved from http://nt.ars-grin.gov/fungaldatabases/ , September 24, 2011. (3) I. Safrankova. Plant Prot. Sci. 43:10, 2007. (4) W. A. Sinclair and H. H. Lyon. Disease of Trees and Shrubs. 2nd ed. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, 2005.

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First Report of Stem Canker of Goldenrain Tree Caused by Lasiodiplodia theobromae in Tennessee and the United States

Plant Disease ◽

10.1094/pdis-05-20-0963-pdn ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 104 (11) ◽

pp. 3062-3062

Author(s):

F. Baysal-Gurel ◽

F. A. Avin ◽

Cansu Oksel ◽

T. Simmons

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Stem Canker ◽

The United States ◽

Lasiodiplodia Theobromae ◽

First Report

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First Report of Macrophomina Crown Rot Caused by Macrophomina phaseolina on Basil in the United States

Plant Disease ◽

10.1094/pdis-10-20-2300-pdn ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 105 (4) ◽

pp. 1218-1218

Author(s):

S. T. Koike ◽

H. Stanghellini ◽

A. Burkhardt

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Macrophomina Phaseolina ◽

The United States ◽

Crown Rot ◽

First Report

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First Report of Rhizoctonia solani AG2-2IIIB Infecting Potato Stems and Stolons in the United States

Plant Disease ◽

10.1094/pdis-10-11-0899 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 96 (3) ◽

pp. 460-460 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

J. W. Woodhall ◽

A. R. Belcher ◽

J. C. Peters ◽

W. W. Kirk ◽

P. S. Wharton

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

New York ◽

Sugar Beet ◽

Rhizoctonia Solani ◽

Its Region ◽

Stem Canker ◽

The United States ◽

Potato Disease ◽

First Report ◽

Plant Pathol

Rhizoctonia solani is an important pathogen of potato (Solanum tuberosum) causing qualitative and quantitative losses. It has been associated with black scurf and stem canker. Isolates of the fungus are assigned to one of 13 known anastomosis groups (AGs), of which AG3 is most commonly associated with potato disease (2,4). In August 2011, diseased potato plants originating from Rupert, ID (cv. Western Russet) and Three Rivers, MI (cv. Russet Norkotah) were received for diagnosis. Both samples displayed stem and stolon lesions typically associated with Rhizoctonia stem canker. The presence of R. solani was confirmed through isolation as previously described (4) and the Idaho and Michigan isolates were designated J11 and J8, respectively. AG was determined by sequencing the rDNA internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region using primers ITS5 and ITS4 (3). The resulting sequences of the rDNA ITS region of isolates J8 and J11 (GenBank Accession Nos. HE608839 and HE608840, respectively) were between 97 and 100% identical to that of other AG2-2IIIB isolates present in sequence databases (GenBank Accession Nos. FJ492075 and FJ492170, respectively). Koch's postulates were confirmed for each isolate by carrying out the following protocol. Each isolate was cultured on potato dextrose agar for 14 days. Five 10-mm agar plugs were then placed on top of seed tubers (cv. Maris Piper) in 1-liter pots containing John Innes Number 3 compost (John Innes Manufacturers Association, Reading, UK). Pots were held in a controlled environment room at 18°C with 50% relative humidity and watered as required. After 21 days, plants were removed and assessed for disease. Typical Rhizoctonia stem lesions were observed and R. solani was successfully reisolated from symptomatic material. To our knowledge, this is the first report of AG2-2IIIB causing disease on potatoes in the United States. In the United States, AGs 2-1, 3, 4, 5, and 9 have all been previously implicated in Rhizoctonia potato disease (2). AG2-2IIIB should now also be considered a potato pathogen in the United States. Knowledge of which AG is present is invaluable when considering a disease management strategy. AG2-2IIIB is a causal agent of sugar beet (Beta vulgaris) root rot in Idaho (1). Sugar beet is commonly grown in crop rotation with potato and such a rotation could increase the risk of soilborne infection to either crop by AG2-2IIIB. References: (1) C. A. Strausbaugh et al. Can. J. Plant Pathol. 33:210, 2011. (2) L. Tsror. J. Phytopatol. 158:649, 2010. (3) T. J. White et al. Page 315 in: PCR Protocols: A Guide to Methods and Applications. M. A. Innis et al., eds. Academic Press, Inc., New York, 1990. (4) J. W.Woodhall et al. Plant Pathol. 56:286, 2007.

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First Report of Pathogenicity of Fusarium sporotrichioides and Fusarium acuminatum on Sunflowers in the United States

Plant Health Progress ◽

10.1094/php-2010-0915-02-br ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 42 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

F. Mathew ◽

B. Kirkeide ◽

T. Gulya ◽

S. Markell

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Helianthus Annuus ◽

The United States ◽

Fusarium Sporotrichioides ◽

Charcoal Rot ◽

Koch’S Postulates ◽

First Report ◽

Fusarium Acuminatum ◽

Helianthus Annuus L ◽

Koch's Postulates

Widespread infection of charcoal rot was observed in a commercial sunflower field in Minnesota in September 2009. Based on morphology, isolates were identified as F. sporotrichioides and F. acuminatum. Koch's postulates demonstrated pathogencity of both species. To our knowledge, this is the first report of F. sporotrichoides and F. acuminatum causing disease on Helianthus annuus L. in the United States. Accepted for publication 23 August 2010. Published 15 September 2010.

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First Report of Wisteria vein mosaic virus in Wisteria sinensis in the United States of America

Plant Health Progress ◽

10.1094/php-2008-0818-01-br ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

pp. 42 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Rayapati A. Naidu ◽

Gandhi Karthikeyan

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Mosaic Virus ◽

United States Of America ◽

The United States ◽

Home Gardens ◽

First Report ◽

Woody Perennial ◽

Wisteria Sinensis ◽

First Time ◽

Wisteria Vein Mosaic Virus

The ornamental Chinese wisteria (Wisteria sinensis) is a woody perennial grown for its flowering habit in home gardens and landscape settings. In this brief, the occurrence of Wisteria vein mosaic virus (WVMV) was reported for the first time in Chinese wisteria in the United States of America. Accepted for publication 18 June 2008. Published 18 August 2008.

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Expansion of Groundnut ringspot virus Host and Geographic Ranges in Solanaceous Vegetables in Peninsular Florida

Plant Health Progress ◽

10.1094/php-2011-0725-01-br ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

pp. 34 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Craig G. Webster ◽

William W. Turechek ◽

H. Charles Mellinger ◽

Galen Frantz ◽

Nancy Roe ◽

...

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

The United States ◽

Vegetable Production ◽

Viral Pathogen ◽

Geographic Ranges ◽

First Report ◽

Geographic Spread ◽

Wide Range ◽

Production Areas ◽

Solanaceous Plants

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of GRSV infecting tomatillo and eggplant, and it is the first report of GRSV infecting pepper in the United States. This first identification of GRSV-infected crop plants in commercial fields in Palm Beach and Manatee Counties demonstrates the continuing geographic spread of the virus into additional vegetable production areas of Florida. This information indicates that a wide range of solanaceous plants is likely to be infected by this emerging viral pathogen in Florida and beyond. Accepted for publication 27 June 2011. Published 25 July 2011.

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