scholarly journals First Report of Leaf Spot Disease of Pineapple Caused by Penicillium oxalicum 

Plant Disease ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jingbo Wu ◽  
Yanbiao He ◽  
Renshu Chen

Pineapple (Ananas comosus Merr.) is an economically important tropical fruit crop. In China, it is primarily distributed in tropical and subtropical southern regions, including Leizhou Peninsula (Guangdong province) and Hainan province. Other pineapple culturing areas also include Fujian, Guangxi, Yunnan, and Taiwan provinces.A pineapple leaf spot disease was observed in Leizhou Peninsula (N20°47′52″,E 110°5′7″) from July to August in 2019–2020, with a natural incidence of 10 to 15%. In the initial infection stage, grayish or yellowish white spots emerged on the leaf surfaces with dimensions 1.25–1.75 × 0.8–1.0 cm. The leaf spots also had distinctive light brown-to-reddish brown banding pattern on the edges. At the late stage of infection, the leaves with the spots withered and died, seriously affecting the plant growth. To isolate the pathogen, leaf pieces 5 mm in diameter were cut from the decaying edges. They were surface-sterilized with 75% ethanol solution for 30 s, washed with 0.1% sodium hypochlorite solution for 30 s, rinsed five times with sterile water, and placed on potato dextrose agar (PDA) medium. After incubation at 28°C for 6 days, the pathogen was purified using single conidial isolation for morphological and molecular characterization. All 25 isolates showed similar phenotypes. The colonies on PDA were green, circular, flat, and velutinous. Conidiophores were broom-shaped (16.35±1.30 μm). Conidia were colorless, unicellular, and kidney shaped (3.50–4.00 × 2.50–3.00 μm). Based on the morphological characteristics, the fungal isolates were tentatively identified as Penicillium species. From each culture, the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of rDNA and the partial β-tubulin genes of a representative isolate (ZN2019211) were amplified using ITS1/ITS4 and Bt2a/Bt2b primer pairs, respectively. The gene sequences were deposited in GenBank (accessions MT678576 for the ITS region and MT720907 for the Bt2 region) and were 100% identical to P. oxalicum Currie & Thom isolates (MN592913 for the ITS region; KX961250 for the Bt2 region). Based on their morphological and molecular characteristics, the isolates were determined to be P. oxalicum. Pathogenicity tests were conducted in three replicates by inoculating surface-sterilized leaves of pineapple. The leaves were wounded and inoculated with mycelium PDA plugs (10 × 10 mm) from 6-day-old cultures. Control leaves wounded in the same way were inoculated with sterilized PDA plugs (10 × 10 mm). Each of the three replicates comprised two whole plants and two leaves (including a control) per plant (Wu et al. 2016). The inoculated leaves were placed in a greenhouse (25 to 30°C). Six days post inoculation, symptoms similar to those observed in the field were observed on the inoculated leaves, but not on the controls; the same fungus was isolated both times from the infected leaves, confirming Koch’s postulates. We also inoculated pineapple inflorescence and fruit, with or without injury, and observed that the pathogen could not cause pineapple fruit disease, but caused early senescence of the inflorescence after being dropped with 200 µl of a 104 conidia/ml solution, although it did not affect subsequent flowering. P. oxalicum has been reported to cause blue mold disease in different plants (Paul et al. 2018; Liu et al. 2019; Tang et al. 2020; Picos-Munoz et al. 2011). However, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of pineapple leaf spot disease caused by P. oxalicum globally, and the disease has become a potential threat to the growth and production of pineapple in China.

Plant Disease ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanxiang Qi ◽  
Yanping Fu ◽  
Jun Peng ◽  
Fanyun Zeng ◽  
Yanwei Wang ◽  
...  

Banana (Musa acuminate L.) is an important tropical fruit in China. During 2019-2020, a new leaf spot disease was observed on banana (M. acuminate L. AAA Cavendish, cv. Formosana) at two orchards of Chengmai county (19°48ʹ41.79″ N, 109°58ʹ44.95″ E), Hainan province, China. In total, the disease incidence was about 5% of banana trees (6 000 trees). The leaf spots occurred sporadically and were mostly confined to the leaf margin, and the percentage of the leaf area covered by lesions was less than 1%. Symptoms on the leaves were initially reddish brown spots that gradually expanded to ovoid-shaped lesions and eventually become necrotic, dry, and gray with a yellow halo. The conidia obtained from leaf lesions were brown, erect or curved, fusiform or elliptical, 3 to 4 septa with dimensions of 13.75 to 31.39 µm × 5.91 to 13.35 µm (avg. 22.39 × 8.83 µm). The cells of both ends were small and hyaline while the middle cells were larger and darker (Zhang et al. 2010). Morphological characteristics of the conidia matched the description of Curvularia geniculata (Tracy & Earle) Boedijn. To acquire the pathogen, tissue pieces (15 mm2) of symptomatic leaves were surface disinfected in 70% ethanol (10 s) and 0.8% NaClO (2 min), rinsed in sterile water three times, and transferred to potato dextrose agar (PDA) for three days at 28°C. Grayish green fungal colonies appeared, and then turned fluffy with grey and white aerial mycelium with age. Two representative isolates (CATAS-CG01 and CATAS-CG92) of single-spore cultures were selected for molecular identification. Genomic DNA was extracted from the two isolates, the internal transcribed spacer (ITS), large subunit ribosomal DNA (LSU rDNA), glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), translation elongation factor 1-alpha (TEF1-α) and RNA polymerase II second largest subunit (RPB2) were amplified and sequenced with universal primers ITS1/ITS4, LROR/LR5, GPD1/GPD2, EF1-983F/EF1-2218R and 5F2/7cR, respectively (Huang et al. 2017; Raza et al. 2019). The sequences were deposited in GenBank (MW186196, MW186197, OK091651, OK721009 and OK491081 for CATAS-CG01; MZ734453, MZ734465, OK091652, OK721100 and OK642748 for CATAS-CG92, respectively). For phylogenetic analysis, MEGA7.0 (Kumar et al. 2016) was used to construct a Maximum Likelihood (ML) tree with 1 000 bootstrap replicates, based on a concatenation alignment of five gene sequences of the two isolates in this study as well as sequences of other Curvularia species obtained from GenBank. The cluster analysis revealed that isolates CATAS-CG01 and CATAS-CG92 were C. geniculata. Pathogenicity assays were conducted on 7-leaf-old banana seedlings. Two leaves from potted plants were stab inoculated by puncturing into 1-mm using a sterilized needle and placing 10 μl conidial suspension (2×106 conidia/ml) on the surface of wounded leaves and equal number of leaves were inoculated with sterile distilled water serving as control (three replicates). Inoculated plants were grown in the greenhouse (12 h/12 h light/dark, 28°C, 90% relative humidity). Necrotic lesions on inoculated leaves appeared seven days after inoculation, whereas control leaves remained healthy. The fungus was recovered from inoculated leaves, and its taxonomy was confirmed morphologically and molecularly, fulfilling Koch’s postulates. C. geniculata has been reported to cause leaf spot on banana in Jamaica (Meredith, 1963). To our knowledge, this is the first report of C. geniculata on banana in China.


2010 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dean A. Glawe ◽  
Tess Barlow ◽  
Steven T. Koike

In the summer of 2009, a leaf spot disease occurred on 100% of Gaillardia × grandiflora cv. Goblin in a commercial nursery in coastal Monterey Co., CA. Nearly all of the affected plants were unsalable. The causal agent was determined to be Entyloma gaillardianum based on morphological features, host, and ITS region. This species has not been reported previously from this host in North America. Accepted for publication 16 March 2010. Published 28 April 2010.


Plant Disease ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 98 (2) ◽  
pp. 284-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Mahadevakumar ◽  
K. M. Jayaramaiah ◽  
G. R. Janardhana

Lablab purpureus (L.) Sweet (Indian bean) is an important pulse crop grown in arid and semi-arid regions of India. It is one of the most widely cultivated legume species and has multiple uses. During a September 2010 survey, we recorded a new leaf spot disease on L. purpureus in and around Mysore district (Karnataka state) with 40 to 80% disease incidence in 130 ha of field crop studied, which accounted for 20 to 35% estimated yield loss. The symptoms appeared as small necrotic spots on the upper leaf surface. The leaf spots were persistent under mild infection throughout the season with production of conidia in clusters on abaxial leaf surface. A Dueteromyceteous fungus was isolated from affected leaf tissues that were surface sterilized with 2% NaOCl2 solution then washed thrice, dried, inoculated on potato dextrose agar (PDA) medium, and incubated at 28 ± 2°C at 12 h alternate light and dark period for 7 days. The fungal colony with aerial mycelia interspersed with dark cushion-shaped sporodochia consists of short, compact conidiophores bearing large isodiametric, solitary, muricate, brown, globular to pear shaped conidia (29.43 to 23.92 μm). Fungal isolate was identified as Epicoccum sp. based on micro-morphological and cultural features (1). Further authenticity of the fungus was confirmed by PCR amplification of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region using ITS1/ITS4 universal primer. The amplified PCR product was purified, sequenced directly, and BLASTn search revealed 100% homology to Epicoccum nigrum Link. (DQ093668.1 and JX914480.1). A representative sequence of E. nigrum was deposited in GenBank (Accession No. KC568289.1). The isolated fungus was further tested for its pathogenicity on 30-day-old healthy L. purpureus plants under greenhouse conditions. A conidial suspension (106 conidia/ml) was applied as foliar spray (three replicates of 15 plants each) along with suitable controls. The plants were kept under high humidity (80%) for 5 days and at ambient temperature (28 ± 2°C). The appearance of leaf spot symptoms were observed after 25 days post inoculation. Further, the pathogen was re-isolated and confirmed by micro-morphological characteristics. E. nigrum has been reported to cause post-harvest decay of cantaloupe in Oklahoma (2). It has also been reported as an endophyte (3). Occurrence as a pathogen on lablab bean has not been previously reported. To our knowledge, this is the first report of the occurrence of E. nigrum on L. purpureus in India causing leaf spot disease. References: (1) H. L. Barnet and B. B. Hunter. Page 150 in: Illustrated Genera of Imperfect Fungi, 1972. (2) B. D. Bruten et al. Plant Dis. 77:1060, 1993. (3) L. C. Fávaro et al. PLoS One 7(6):e36826, 2012.


Plant Disease ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lv-Yin Zhou ◽  
Shuang-Feng Yang ◽  
Shao-Mei Wang ◽  
Jing-Wen Lv ◽  
Wei Qiang Wan ◽  
...  

Bletilla striata (Thunb.) Rchb. f. (Orchidaceae) is traditionally used for hemostasis and detumescence in China. In April 2019, a leaf spot disease on B. striata was observed in plant nurseries in Guilin, Guangxi Province, China, with an estimated incidence of ~30%. Initial symptoms include the appearance of circular or irregular brown spots on leaf surfaces, which progressively expand into large, dark brown, necrotic areas. As lesions coalesce, large areas of the leaf die, ultimately resulting in abscission. To isolate the pathogen, representative samples exhibiting symptoms were collected, leaf tissues (5 × 5 mm) were cut from the junction of diseased and healthy tissue, surface-disinfected in 1% sodium hypochlorite solution for 2 min, rinsed three times in sterile water, plated on potato dextrose agar (PDA) medium, and incubated at 28°C (12-h light-dark cycle) for 3 days. Hyphal tips from recently germinated spores were transferred to PDA to obtain pure cultures. Nine fungal isolates with similar morphological characteristics were obtained. Colonies on PDA were villose, had a dense growth of aerial mycelia and appeared pinkish white from above and greyish orange at the center and pinkish-white at the margin on the underside. Macroconidia were smooth, and hyaline, with a dorsiventral curvature, hooked to tapering apical cells, and 3- to 5-septate. Three-septate macroconidia were 21.2 to 32.1 × 2.4 to 3.9 μm (mean ± SD: 26.9 ± 2.5 × 3.2 ± 0.4 μm, n = 30); 4-septate macroconidia were 29.5 to 38.9 × 3.0 to 4.3 μm (mean ± SD: 33.5 ± 2.6 × 3.6 ± 0.3 μm, n = 40); and 5-septate macroconidia were 39.3 to 55.6 × 4.0 to 5.4 μm (mean ± SD: 48.0 ± 3.9 × 4.5 ± 0.3 μm, n = 50). These morphological characteristics were consistent with F. ipomoeae, a member of the Fusarium incarnatum-equiseti species complex (FIESC) (Wang et al. 2019). To confirm the fungal isolate’s identification, the genomic DNA of the single-spore isolate BJ-22.3 was extracted using the CTAB method (Guo et al. 2000). The internal transcribed space (ITS) region of rDNA, translation elongation factor-1 alpha (TEF-1α), and partial RNA polymerase second largest subunit (RPB2) were amplified using primer pairs [ITS1/ITS4 (White et al. 1990), EF-1/EF-2 (O’Donnell et al. 1998), and 5f2/11ar (Liu, Whelen et al. 1999, Reeb, Lutzoni et al. 2004), respectively]. The ITS (MT939248), TEF-1α (MT946880), and RPB2 (MT946881) sequences of the BJ-22.3 isolate were deposited in GenBank. BLASTN analysis of these sequences showed over 99% nucleotide sequence identity with members of the FIESC: the ITS sequence showed 99.6% identity (544/546 bp) to F. lacertarum strain NRRL 20423 (GQ505682); the TEF-1α sequence showed 99.4% similarity (673/677 bp) to F. ipomoeae strain NRRL 43637 (GQ505664); and the RPB2 sequence showed 99.6% identity (1883/1901 bp) to F. equiseti strain GZUA.1657 (MG839492). Phylogenetic analysis using concatenated sequences of ITS, TEF-1α, and RPB2 showed that BJ-22.3 clustered monophyletically with strains of F. ipomoeae. Therefore, based on morphological and molecular characteristics, the isolate BJ-22.3 was identified as F. ipomoeae. To verify the F. ipomoeae isolate’s pathogenicity, nine 1.5-year-old B. striata plants were inoculated with three 5 × 5 mm mycelial discs of strain BJ-22.3 from 4-day-old PDA cultures. Additionally, three control plants were inoculated with sterile PDA discs. The experiments were replicated three times. All plants were enclosed in transparent plastic bags and incubated in a greenhouse at 26°C for 14 days. Four days post-inoculation, leaf spot symptoms appeared on the inoculated leaves, while no symptoms were observed in control plants. Finally, F. ipomoeae was consistently re-isolated from leaf lesions from the infected plants. To our knowledge, this is the first report of F. ipomoeae causing leaf spot disease on B. striata in China. The spread of this disease might pose a serious threat to the production of B. striata. Growers should implement disease management to minimize the risks posed by this pathogen.


Plant Disease ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Da Li ◽  
Tianning Zhang ◽  
Qingni Song ◽  
Jun Liu ◽  
Haiyan Zhang ◽  
...  

As an important industrial, pharmaceutical and evergreen shade tree (Singh and Jawaid 2012), the camphor tree (Cinnamomum camphora) has been coppiced in Jiangxi Province, China. From 2017 to 2020, we noticed many camphor trees with leaf spots, with an incidence estimated at 50 to 75%, which could severely inhibit leaf growth and reduce their biomass. A dark-green circle with a watery spot appeared on the infected leaves at the initial stage, and necrosis with forming shot-spots surrounded by yellow halos occurred (Figure 1 A). Five leaves with typical symptoms were sampled and washed with tap water for ca. 15 min. Isolation and morphological analysis were performed following the method of Bao et al. (2019). Among 61 fungal isolates, 49 showed the same culture characters. Colonies on PDA were villose and regular, the reverse was scarlet at the edge of the colony, which was ca. 8.75 cm after 7 days of inoculation (Figure 1 I). Chlamydospores were aseptate, dark brown, smooth, in chains or solitary, ellipsoidal to ovoid, 4.8–9.6 × 4.8–11.1 μm (Figure 1 J). The pycnidia were produced on PDA and varied from 47.4 to 85.8 µm (mean 60.2 µm) × 38.6 to 66.8 μm (mean 49.7 μm) (n = 17) (Figure 1 K). Conidia were hyaline, unicellular, elliptical to ovoid, 4.3-6.4 µm (mean 5.1 µm) × 2.3-3.3 µm (mean 2.8 µm) (n = 52) (Figure 1 L). Pathogenicity tests of isolate XW-9 was carried out in the field. Ten leaves were wounded with a sterilized insect needle and inoculated with mycelium plugs (7-mm diameter). Non-colonized PDA plugs served as the negative controlIn addition, conidial suspensions (105 conidia/mL) of isolate XW-9 were sprayed on surface-sterilized leaves with a further ten leaves being sprayed with sterile water as the control. Symptoms described in this study appeared in 100% of the mycelium-inoculated leaves and more than 80% of the conidium-inoculated leaves after 7 days post-inoculation (Figure 1 B-E). No symptoms were seen in the controls (Figure 1 C). Three days after inoculation, brown spots resembling those observed in the field developed on the inoculated leaves, and some lesions turned into shot holes on the infected leaves (Figure 1 G & H). However, no symptoms were observed on the controls (Figure 1 F). The fungus was re-isolated from the margins of the leaf spots and labelled P-XW-9A. The gene regions for ITS, LSU, tub2, RPB2 and ACT of isolates XW-9 and P-XW-9A were amplified and sequenced. The sequences of rDNA-ITS, LSU, tub2, RPB2 and ACT of XW-9 were GenBank MW142397, MW130844, MW165322, MW446945 and MW165324, respectively and those of P-XW-9A were GenBank MW142398, MW130845, MW165323, MW446946 and MW165325, respectively (Lumbsch, et al. 2000; Aveskamp, et al. 2009; Hou et al. 2020). Phylogenetic analysis using concatenated sequences of ITS, LSU, RPB2, and tub2 showed that isolates XW-9 and P-XW-9A formed a single clade with the reference strain of E. poaceicola CBS 987.95 (Figure 2). Thus, XW-9 was identified as E. poaceicola based on its morphological and molecular characteristics. Significantly, the recovered isolate P-XW-9A also aligned with E. poaceicola fulfilling the criteria for Koch's Postulates. E. poaceicola was only reported as a fungal pathogen of Phyllostachys viridis in China (Liu et al. 2020). To our knowledge, this is the first report of leaf spot disease on camphor trees caused by E. poaceicola in China and our findings will be useful for its management.


Plant Disease ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 91 (12) ◽  
pp. 1684-1684 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Ko ◽  
K. S. Yao ◽  
C. Y. Chen ◽  
C. H. Lin

Mango (Mangifera indica L.; family Anacardiaceae) is one of the world's most important fruit crops and is widely grown in tropical and subtropical regions. Since 2001, a leaf spot disease was found in mango orchards of Taiwan. Now, the disease was observed throughout (approximately 21,000 ha) Taiwan in moderate to severe form, thus affecting the general health of mango trees and orchards. Initial symptoms were small, yellow-to-brown spots on leaves. Later, the irregularly shaped spots, ranging from a few millimeters to a few centimeters in diameter, turned white to gray and coalesced to form larger gray patches. Lesions had slightly raised dark margins. On mature lesions, numerous black acervuli, measuring 290 to 328 μm in diameter, developed on the gray necrotic areas. Single conidial isolates of the fungus were identified morphologically as Pestalotiopsis mangiferae (Henn.) Steyaert (2,3) and were consistently isolated from the diseased mango leaves on acidified (0.06% lactic acid) potato dextrose agar (PDA) medium incubated at 25 ± 1°C. Initially, the fungus grew (3 mm per day) on PDA as a white, chalky colony that subsequently turned gray after 2 weeks. Acervuli developed in culture after continuous exposure to light for 9 to 12 days at 20 to 30°C. Abundant conidia oozed from the acervulus as a creamy mass. The conidia (17.6 to 25.4 μm long and 4.8 to 7.1 μm wide) were fusiform and usually straight to slightly curved with four septa. Three median cells were olivaceous and larger than the hyaline apical and basal cells. The apical cells bore three (rarely four) cylindrical appendages. Pathogenicity tests were conducted with either 3-day-old mycelial discs or conidial suspension (105 conidia per ml) obtained from 8- to 10-day-old cultures. Four leaves on each of 10 trees were inoculated. Before inoculation, the leaves were washed with a mild detergent, rinsed with tap water, and then surface sterilized with 70% ethanol. Leaves were wounded with a needle and exposed to either a 5-mm mycelial disc or 0.2 ml of the spore suspension. The inoculated areas were wrapped with cotton pads saturated with sterile water and the leaves were covered with polyethylene bags for 3 days to maintain high relative humidity. Wounded leaves inoculated with PDA discs alone served as controls. The symptoms described above were observed on all inoculated leaves, whereas uninoculated leaves remained completely free from symptoms. Reisolation from the inoculated leaves consistently yielded P. mangiferae, thus fulfilling Koch's postulates. Gray leaf spot is a common disease of mangos in the tropics and is widely distributed in Africa and Asia (1–3); however, to our knowledge, this is the first report of gray leaf spot disease affecting mango in Taiwan. References: (1) T. K. Lim and K. C. Khoo. Diseases and Disorders of Mango in Malaysia. Tropical Press. Malaysia, 1985. (2) J. E. M. Mordue. No. 676 in: CMI Descriptions of Pathogenic Fungi and Bacteria. Surrey, England, 1980. (3) R. C. Ploetz et al. Compendium of Tropical Fruit Diseases. The American Phytopathological Society. St. Paul, MN, 1994.


Plant Disease ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wang Hanyi ◽  
Hou Xiuming ◽  
Xueming Huang ◽  
Meng Gao ◽  
Tingting Chen ◽  
...  

Bletilla striata (Thunb.) Rchb. f. (Orchidaceae family, known as Baiji in Chinese) is a perennial herb and has been traditionally used for hemostasis and detumescence in China. In April of 2020, a leaf spot disease on B. striata was observed in plant nurseries (∼0.2 h) in Guilin, Guangxi Province, China. Approximately 20% of the plants were symptomatic, of which 150 plants were randomly selected for investigation. Initial symptoms include the appearance of small, circular or irregular light brown spots, randomly scattered on the edges and surfaces of the leaves, which progressively expand into large, suborbicular or irregular-shaped dark brown, necrotic areas. At the severe stage, the lesions coalesced into large necrotic areas and ultimately resulted in leaf abscission. To isolate the pathogen, three representative plants exhibiting symptoms were collected from the nurseries. Leaf tissues (5 × 5 mm) were cut from the margin of necrotic lesions (n = 18), surface-disinfected in 1% sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) solution for 2 min, then rinsed three times in sterile water before isolation. The tissues were plated on potato dextrose agar (PDA) medium, and incubated at 28°C (12-h photoperiod) for 3 days. Hyphal tips from recently germinated spores were transferred to PDA to obtain pure cultures. Nine fungal isolates with similar morphological characteristics were obtained. Three single-spore isolates, BJ23.1, BJ55.1, and BJ91.3, were subjected to further morphological and molecular characterisation. Colonies on PDA plates were villose, had a dense growth of aerial mycelia and appeared white (1A1) to yellowish white (3A2). Macroconidia were smooth, hyaline, straight to slightly curved, usually contained three or five septa, and measuring 23.3 to 42.1 × 3.0 to 6.2 μm (mean ± SD: 31.2 ± 5.1 × 4.2 ± 0.6 μm, n = 50). Microconidia were generally cylindrical, straight to slightly curved, aseptate, and measuring 7.2 to 18.8 × 2.5 to 4.3 μm (mean ± SD: 12.1 ± 2.8 × 3.3 ± 0.5 μm, n = 62). Morphological characteristics are similar to those of F. commune (Skovgaard et al. 2003). For molecular identification, the genomic DNA of the isolates BJ23.1, BJ55.1, and BJ91.3 were extracted using the CTAB method (Guo et al. 2000). The internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of rDNA, partial translation elongation factor-1 alpha (TEF-1α), RNA polymerase second largest subunit (RPB2), and the mitochondrial small subunit rDNA (mtSSU) genes were amplified using primer pairs [ITS1/ITS4 (White et al. 1990), EF-1/EF-2 (O’Donnell et al. 1998), and 5f2/11ar (Liu et al. 1999, Reeb et al. 2004), MS1/MS2 (Li et al. 1994), respectively]. The obtained sequences were deposited in NCBI GenBank under the following accession numbers: ITS (MZ424697 to MZ424699), TEF-1α (MZ513467 to MZ513469), RPB2 (MZ513473 to MZ513475), and mtSSU (MZ513470 to MZ513472). BLAST® analysis of the deposited sequences showed 99 to 100% identity with those of F. commune present in GenBank (Accession numbers: DQ016205, MH582348, MH582181, AF077383). In addition, a phylogenetic analysis using concatenated sequences of ITS, TEF-1α, mtSSU genes showed that BJ23.1, BJ55.1, and BJ91.3 located on the same clade with strains of F. commune. Therefore, based on morphological and molecular characteristics, the isolates were identified as F. commune (Skovgaard et al. 2003, Stewart et al. 2006). Pathogenicity was tested using 1.5-year-old B. striata plants. Healthy leaves on plants were inoculated with 5 × 5 mm mycelial discs of strains BJ23.1, BJ55.1, and BJ91.3 from 3-day-old PDA cultures, each isolate was inoculated onto three plants; three other plants inoculated with sterile PDA discs served as controls. All plants were enclosed in transparent plastic bags and incubated in a greenhouse at 28°C for 14 days (12-h photoperiod). Three days post-inoculation, leaf spot symptoms appeared on the inoculated leaves. No symptoms were detected on control plants. Experiments were replicated three times with similar results. To fulfill Koch’s postulates, F. commune was consistently re-isolated from symptomatic tissue and confirmed by morphology and sequencing, whereas no fungus was isolated from the control plants. F. commune has been reported to cause diseases on some plants, including sugarcane (Wang et al. 2018), maize (Xi et al. 2019) and Wax Gourd (Zeng et al. 2020). To our knowledge, this is the first report of F. commune causing leaf spot disease on B. striata in China. Identification of this pathogen provides the information for further studies to develop management strategies to control the disease.


Plant Disease ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boda Praveen ◽  
Prasanna Kumar M.K. ◽  
Devanna Pramesh ◽  
PALANNA K B ◽  
Buela P.P. ◽  
...  

Oat (Avena sativa L.) is an important cereal crop grown worldwide primarily for food and animal feed. In November 2019, a leaf spot disease was observed on the oat plants at Mandya (12.5218° N, 76.8951° E), Karnataka, India. The disease incidence on plants was ranged between 43 to 57 percent. Initially, the symptoms appeared on leaves as small dark-brown spots surrounded by a yellow halo later turned to irregular necrotic spots with a yellow halo. A total of thirty leaves showing typical symptoms were collected from ten plants (three leaves per plant), cut into an area of 4-5 mm pieces at the junction of infected and healthy tissues. Cut tissues were soaked in 75% ethanol for 45 seconds, followed by 1% sodium hypochlorite solution for 1 min, rinsed five times in sterile distilled water, air dried, and placed on PDA and incubated at 25 ± 1 ℃. After 7 days of incubation, greyish fungal colonies appeared on PDA. Single-spore isolation method was employed to recover the pure cultures for five isolates. The colonies initially produced light-greyish aerial mycelia, then turned to dark-greyish upon maturity. Conidia were obclavate to pyriform and measured 17.34 to 46.97 µm long, 5.38 to 14.31 µm wide with 0 to 3 longitudinal, and 1 to 6 transverse septa with short beak (2.73 to 10.17µm) (n = 50.) Based on the morpho-cultural characteristics, the isolates were identified as Alternaria spp., and PCR assay using species-specific primers (AAF2/AAR3; Konstantinova, et al. 2002) confirmed the taxonomic identity of all five isolates as A. alternata. To further confirm the identity, the internal transcribed spacer (ITS), small subunit (SSU), glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (gapdh), RNA polymerase second largest subunit (rpb2), Alternaria major allergen (Alt a1), endopolygalacturonase (endoPG), an anonymous gene region OPA10-2, KOG1058 and translation elongation factor 1-alpha (tef1) of two isolates MAAS-1 and MAAS-2 were PCR amplified using the primers described previously (Woudenberg et al. 2015; Praveen et al. 2020) and the resultant PCR products were sequenced and deposited in NCBI GenBank (ITS: MW487388, MW741962, SSU: MW506220, MW752854, gapdh: MW506221, MW752855, rpb2: MW506222, MW752856, Alt a1: MW506223, MW752857, endoPG: MW506224, MW752858, OPA10-2: MW506225, MW752859, KOG1058: MW506226, MW752860, and tef1: MW506227, MW752861) which showed (99.62%, 99.81%), (100%, 100%), (100%, 99.66%), (100%, 100%), (99.58%, 99.15%), (99.55%, 99.32%), (99.53%, 99.68%), (99.23%, 99.56%) and (99.17%, 99.58%) identity with ITS (AF347031), SSU (KC584507), gapdh (AY278808), rpb2 (KC584375), Alt a1 (AY563301), endoPG (JQ811978), OPA10-2 (KP124632), KOG1058 (KP125233) and tef1 (KC584634) genes/genomic regions of type strain CBS916.96 of A. alternata respectively, confirming the identity of MAAS-1 as A. alternata. For pathogenicity assay, the conidial suspension (2 × 106 conidia/ml) of MAAS-1 isolate was artificially sprayed until runoff on ten healthy oat plants (cv. Kent, 35 days old) and ten plants sprayed with sterile water served as control. All plants were covered with polyethylene covers and kept under the greenhouse at 28 ± 1 ℃. The pathogenicity assay was repeated three times. After six days post-inoculation, small dark-brown spots with light-yellow halo appeared on leaves of MAAS-1inoculated plants. In comparison, no symptoms were observed on control plants. The fungal pathogen was re-isolated from the artificially infected plants and confirmed as A. alternata based on morpho-cultural characteristics and PCR assays. The leaf spot disease of Oat caused by A. alternata has already been reported from China (Chen et al. 2020); to our knowledge, it is the first report of A. alternata causing leaf spot on Oat in India. The leaf spot disease is an emerging threat to oat cultivation, and it reduces the grain yield and leaf quality; therefore, its management is essential for increasing productivity.


Plant Disease ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 98 (5) ◽  
pp. 691-691 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Z. Fu ◽  
Z. H. Zhang ◽  
L. H. Wang ◽  
G. Y. Li ◽  
J. Z. Zhang ◽  
...  

The Chinese dwarf banana (Ensete lasiocarpum) is one of the ornamental bananas that belongs to Musaceae family. The plant is native to the southwestern China, where it grows semi-wild in the mountains between 1,500 and 2,500 m above sea level. During July 2011, a leaf spot disease on this plant was observed in the campus and parks in Kunming, Yunnan Province. The incidence level was about 22%, mainly on the old leaves. The leaf symptoms were irregular spots with gray to off-white centers surrounded by dark brown margins, and usually also surrounded by chlorotic halos. Leaf tissues (3 × 5 mm), cut from the margins of lesions, were surface-disinfected (95% ethanol for 3 min, 0.1% HgCl2 for 2 min, rinsed three times with sterile water), plated on potato sucrose agar (PSA), and incubated at 26°C under natural lights. The same fungus was consistently isolated from the diseased leaves. Colonies of white-to-dark gray mycelia formed on PSA that were black on the underside. The colonies were further identified as Alternaria sp. based on the dark brown, obclavate to obpyriform catenulate conidia with longitudinal and transverse septa tapering to a prominent beak attached in chains on a simple and short conidiophore (2). Conidia were 5.26 to 30.26 μm long and 3.95 to 15.79 μm wide, averaging 10.21 (±3.17) × 20.02 (±5.75) μm (n = 50), with a beak length of 0 to 7.89 μm, and had 3 to 8 transverse and 0 to 3 longitudinal septa. PCR amplification was carried out by utilizing universal rDNA-ITS primer pair ITS4/ITS5 (1). The ITS region of isolate DY1 (GenBank Accession No. KF516556) was 572 bp in length. BLAST search revealed 99% identity with two Alternaria alternata isolates (JF440581.1 and GQ121322.2). Phylogenetic analysis (MEGA 5.1) using the neighbor-joining algorithm placed the isolate in a well-supported cluster with other A. alternata isolates. The pathogen was identified as A. alternate (Fr.:Fr.) Keissler based on the morphological characteristics and rDNA-ITS sequence analysis. To confirm pathogenicity, Koch's postulates were performed on detached leaves of E. lasiocarpum inoculated with mycelial plugs with ddH2O and agar plugs as a control. Leaf spots identical to those observed in the field developed in 9 days on the inoculated leaves but not on the control. The inoculation assay used three leaves, totaling 72 spots for control and 36 spots for inoculation. The experiments were repeated once. A. alternata was consistently re-isolated from the inoculated leaves. The symptom developed easier with wounds. To our knowledge, this is the first report of E. lasiocarpum leaf spot disease caused by A. alternata in China and the world. References: (1) T. J. White et al. Page 315 in: PCR Protocols: A Guide to Methods and Applications. Academic Press, San Diego, 1990. (2) T. Y. Zhang. Flora Fungorum Sinicorum, Vol. 16: Alternaria. Science Press, Beijing, China, 2003.


Plant Disease ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiaoxiu Yin ◽  
Xiaoli An ◽  
Xian Wu ◽  
Dissanayake Saman Pradeep Dharmasena ◽  
Dongxue Li ◽  
...  

Tea [Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze)] have been widely planted in Guizhou Province in recent years, and the cultivation area in the region ranks first among all the provinces or cities in China. Leaf spot disease was an important disease of tea in Kaiyang county, Guizhou Province, which mainly damaged young leaves and shoot of tea and led to a huge loss of the production of tea. The spots initially represented brown and round, and then the diameter of the spot was 4-6 mm during later period, with the color of the center in the spot changing white. Tea leaf spot disease always occurs in early spring and the region with 1300 m altitude. From 2016 to 2019, disease incidence of leaves was estimated at 84% to 92%, and the disease severity on a plant basis was determined to be 64% to 76%, depending on the field. To identify the causal agent of the foliar disease, pieces of the lesion margins were surface sterilized with 75% ethanol for 30 s, followed by 0.5% sodium hypochlorite for 5 min, rinsed with sterile water three times, plated on potato dextrose agar (PDA) and incubated in the dark at 25C for 3 to 5 d. The hyphal tips from the margins of the growing colonies were successively picked and transferred to fresh PDA plates to purify the isolates. The result indicated that the isolates on PDA represented initially round form, and white mycelium. The reverse sides of the isolates firstly displayed light yellow on PDA. Conidiophores represent dark brown, geniculate. Brown conidia, narrow ovoid, length: 22.9 ± 4.5 μm, width: 11.1 ± 1.7 μm, with 4 to 8 transverse septa and with conspicuously ornamented walls. The gene of glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) (Berbee et al. 1999) and the Alternaria allergen 1 (Alt a1) (Hong et al. 2005) of three strains were amplified, sequenced and deposited in Genbank. Maximum parsimony phylogenetic analysis based on concatenated sequences of combined GAPDH (1-583) and Alt a 1 (588-1065) indicated that the strain AXLKY_2019_010 was identical to reference strain Alternaria longipes strain EGS 30-033, and the clade was supported by 96% bootstrap values. According to the Koch’s postulate, the tea leaves were inoculated with PDA plugs with actively growing mycelia using the methods of the puncture, cut and unwound under the laboratory conditions and the natural conditions. Slight yellow spots were gradually formed after 2 d post-inoculation on the inoculated leaves, and the color of the center of the spot changed to be white. With the prolonging of inoculation time, the size of lesion represented to be slightly enlarged. PDA plugs without mycelia were used as a control, and the control group showed no symptoms. The same isolates were consistently reisolated from inoculated leaves. A. longipes can cause leaf blight of carrots in Israel (Vintal et al. 2002), leaf spot of potato in Pakistan (Shoaib et al. 2014) and leaf spot of Atractylodes macrocephala in China (Tan et al. 2012). To our knowledge, this is the first report of A. longipes causing leaf spot on tea in China and our findings will be useful for its management and for further research.


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