scholarly journals First Report of Blight on Pinellia ternata (Banxia) Caused by Choanephora cucurbitarum in China.

Plant Disease ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fanfan Wang ◽  
ting Mao ◽  
Tao Tang ◽  
Jie Guo ◽  
Yuanyuan Duan ◽  
...  

Pinellia ternata (Thunb.) Makino ex Briet. (banxia, crow-dipper) is a perennial herbaceous plant native to China, Japan, and Korea. A member of the family Araceae, it is considered an invasive weed in parts of Europe and North America. In August 2020, P. ternata plants showing blight symptoms (8% incidence in a 30-ha field) were observed, near Qianjiang City (30°50′N, 112°92′E), Hubei Province, China. Brown water-soaked lesions first appeared on flowers followed by flower blight and leaf and stem rot during periods of more than 80% humidity (Supplementary figure 1). White, cottony mycelia grew from rotted tissues and produced sporangiophores with brown to black sporangiola. To identify the causal agent, 12 diseased samples were surface disinfested with 0.5% sodium hypochlorite and 75% ethyl alcohol, then plated on potato dextrose agar (PDA) maintained at 25°C. Ten fungal isolates were selected by hyphal tip isolation and placed on fresh PDA. White fungal colonies grew rapidly that later turned pale yellow and produced abundant sporangiola in 13 days. Sporangiophores were smooth, hyaline, aseptate, and produced monosporous sporangiola. Sporangiola were ellipsoid, indehiscent, pediculate, brown to dark brown, 8 to 16 × 14 to 21 μm (n = 50) in size, with visible longitudinal striations . Sporangia with a few or many sporangiospores were subglobose, pale brown to brown, and 55 to 165 μm (n = 40) in diameter. Sporangiospores were broadly ellipsoid, brown to pale brown, striate, 8 to 12 × 15 to 25 μm (n=30) in size, with hyaline polar appendages. Based on these morphological characteristics, the fungus was identified as Choanephora cucurbitarum (Berk. & Ravenel) Thaxt. (Kirk 1984). To confirm the identification, the strain QJFY1 was chosen for DNA sequencing. The internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of rDNA and large subunit (LSU) region of ribosomal RNA were amplified with primers ITS1/ITS4 and NL1/LR3 (Walther et al. 2013) and the amplicons were sequenced. BLAST analysis of the 593bp sequences (accession no. MW295532) and the 699bp sequence(accession no. MW341527)showed ≥99.5% identity with C. cucurbitarum strains CBS 674.93 (GenBank accession no. JN943006.1 and JN939195.1; Supplementary figure 2). Based on morphological and molecular characteristics, the fungus was identified as C. cucurbitarum. Koch’s postulates were fulfilled by inoculating flowers of three healthy 30-day-old P. ternata plants with 50 μL of inoculum suspension (1 x 104 conidia/ml) obtained from 13-day old cultures of C. cucurbitarum isolate QJFY1. Another three plants treated with sterile distilled water served as controls. All plants were placed in a greenhouse with relative humidity of 90% for 2 days and thereafter placed in the glasshouse at 25 ± 1°C. After three days, symptoms similar to those seen under field conditions, were observed on inoculated plants and non-inoculated plants remained healthy. C. cucurbitarum was reisolated and identified by molecular characteristics (ITS and LSU) from inoculated plants. The experiment was repeated thrice with similar results. To our knowledge, this is the first report of Choanephora blight caused by C. cucurbitarum on P. ternata in China and worldwide. Hubei Province is one of the most important banxia producing areas in China and C. cucurbitarum can pose a new threat to banxia production. Our results provide a basis to develop effective measures to manage this disease. References: Kirk, P. M. 1984. Mycol. Pap. 152:1. Walther, G., et al. 2013. Persoonia 30:11. http://dx.doi.org/10.3767/003158513X665070 Acknowledgements Science Funds for Young Scholar of Institute of Chinese Herbal Medicines, Hubei Academy of Agricultural Sciences (grant no. 2019ZYCJJ01), Key Research and Development Program of Hubei Province (grant no. 2020BCA059), Support Plan of Hubei Academy of Agricultural Sciences (grant no. 2019fcxjh09), Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Crops of Central China, Ministry of Agriculture, P. R.China / Hubei Key Laboratory of Crop Disease, Insect Pests and Weeds Control (grant no. 2019ZTSJJ6), Hubei Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Center Project (grant no.2019-620-003-001)

Plant Disease ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fanfan Wang ◽  
Tao Tang ◽  
Jie Guo ◽  
XiaoLiang Guo ◽  
Yuanyuan Duan ◽  
...  

Pinellia ternata is a perennial herbaceous plant, which tubers can be used for anti-inflammatory and has a significant position in Traditional Chinese Medicine (Marki et al. 1987). In April 2020, bacterial stem blight first occurred on P. ternata in Jingmen City (30°32′N, 111°51′E), Hubei Province, China. In the follow-up investigation, the disease also appeared in plantations of P. ternata in Qianjiang City, Tianmen City. Initial symptoms showed orange-red streak on the stem, then progressed into chlorotic and water-soaked lesions, which caused roots to be necrotic and leaves to stunting, fading, and wilting. In the end, the leaves withered, the stems rotted completely, and the incidence of plant collapse reached 20~30%. To isolate the plant pathogenic bacteria, twenty P. ternata plant samples with distinct chlorotic stem symptoms were obtained from two fields in Jingmen City. Symptomatic samples were cut to 1-cm-long pieces by sterile scalpel, then were streaked onto nutrient agar medium and grow at 28℃ for 48 h. Four pure typical aerobic, gram-negative bacteria were isolated by characterized with transparent, smooth, round, convex surfaces. The isolated colonies did not produce fluorescent pigments on King’s B medium. In addition, the isolates were positive for nitrate reduction, arabinose, mannitol, D-ribose, sucrose, D-sorbitol, and were negative for gelatin liquefaction, rhamnose, D-glucose, D-melibiose. These characteristics were identified as Pseudomonas extremorientalis (Ivanova et al. 2002). One representative colony ZJH1 was selected randomly for further verification. The 16s rRNA, gyrB, and rpoD regions were obtained with primers 27F/1492R (Weisburg et al. 1991), gyrB-Fps/ gyrB-Rps, and rpoD-Fps/ rpoD-Rps, respectively (Sarkar and Guttman. 2004). These sequences were deposited in GenBank as accession nos. MT459234.1, MT469887.1 and MT469886.1, which revealed 99% homology with P. extremorientalis strain BS2774 (accession nos. LT629708.1). The pathogenicity of P. extremorientalis strain ZJH1 was confirmed by using 3-month-old, healthy, greenhouse-grown P. ternata plants. The stems were stabbed and inoculated 10 μL of the bacterial suspension (108 CFU / ml), inoculating the same amount of sterile water as a control, repeated 5 times for each treatment. The plants were cultivated in a greenhouse at 28 °C and a humidity of 80%. Three days later, the stems showed necrosis, followed by the withered leaves and died plants, whereas the control had no symptoms. P. extremorientalis were reisolated and verified again from symptomatic plants, which was consistent with Koch's postulates. This experiment was repeated thrice to get the same result. To our knowledge, this is the first report of bacterial stem blight caused by P. extremorientalis on P. ternata in China. Stem blight caused by P. extremorientalis poses a significant threat to yield and marketability of P. ternata. Further research on selecting resistant variety and effective chemical control is needed. References: Ivanova, E. P., et al. 2002. Int J Syst Evol Micr. 2113:2120. https://doi.org/10.1099/00207713-52-6-2113 Marki, T., et al. 1987. Planta Med. 53:412. Sarkar, S. F., Guttman, D. S. 2004. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 70:1999. https://doi.org/10.1128/AEM.70.4.1999-2012.2004 Weisburg, W. G., et al. 1991. J. Bacteriol. 173:697. https://doi.org/10.1128/jb.173.2.697-703.1991 F. F. Wang and Y. J. You contributed equally to this work. The author(s) declare no conflict of interest. Funding: National Modern Agricultural Industrial Technology System (grant no. CARS-21), Technology R&D Program of Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture (grant no. D20190015), Science Funds for Young Scholar of Institute of Chinese Herbal Medicines, Hubei Academy of Agricultural Sciences (grant no. 2019ZYCJJ01), Key R&D Program of Hubei Province (grant no. 2020BCA059), Key Technology R&D Projects of Hubei Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Center (grant no. 2020-620-000-002-04)


Plant Disease ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Md Aktaruzzaman ◽  
Tania Afroz ◽  
Hyo-Won Choi ◽  
Byung Sup Kim

Perilla (Perilla frutescens var. japonica), a member of the family Labiatae, is an annual herbaceous plant native to Asia. Its fresh leaves are directly consumed and its seeds are used for cooking oil. In July 2018, leaf spots symptoms were observed in an experimental field at Gangneung-Wonju National University, Gangneung, Gangwon province, Korea. Approximately 30% of the perilla plants growing in an area of about 0.1 ha were affected. Small, circular to oval, necrotic spots with yellow borders were scattered across upper leaves. Masses of white spores were observed on the leaf underside. Ten small pieces of tissue were removed from the lesion margins of the lesions, surface disinfected with NaOCl (1% v/v) for 30 s, and then rinsed three times with distilled water for 60 s. The tissue pieces were then placed on potato dextrose agar (PDA) and incubated at 25°C for 7 days. Five single spore isolates were obtained and cultured on PDA. The fungus was slow-growing and produced 30-50 mm diameter, whitish colonies on PDA when incubated at 25ºC for 15 days. Conidia (n= 50) ranged from 5.5 to 21.3 × 3.5 to 5.8 μm, were catenate, in simple or branched chains, ellipsoid-ovoid, fusiform, and old conidia sometimes had 1 to 3 conspicuous hila. Conidiophores (n= 10) were 21.3 to 125.8 × 1.3 to 3.6 μm in size, unbranched, straight or flexuous, and hyaline. The morphological characteristics of five isolates were similar. Morphological characteristics were consistent with those described for Ramularia coleosporii (Braun, 1998). Two representative isolates (PLS 001 & PLS003) were deposited in the Korean Agricultural Culture Collection (KACC48670 & KACC 48671). For molecular identification, a multi-locus sequence analysis was conducted. The internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions of the rDNA, partial actin (ACT) gene and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) gene were amplified using primer sets ITS1/4, ACT-512F/ACT-783R and gpd1/gpd2, respectively (Videira et al. 2016). Sequences obtained from each of the three loci for isolate PLS001 and PLS003 were deposited in GenBank with accession numbers MH974744, MW470869 (ITS); MW470867, MW470870 (ACT); and MW470868, MW470871 (GAPDH), respectively. Sequences for all three genes exhibited 100% identity with R. coleosporii, GenBank accession nos. GU214692 (ITS), KX287643 (ACT), and 288200 (GAPDH) for both isolates. A multi-locus phylogenetic tree, constructed by the neighbor-joining method with closely related reference sequences downloaded from the GenBank database and these two isolates demonstrated alignment with R. coleosporii. To confirm pathogenicity, 150 mL of a conidial suspension (2 × 105 spores per mL) was sprayed on five, 45 days old perilla plants. An additional five plants, to serve as controls, were sprayed with sterile water. All plants were placed in a humidity chamber (>90% relative humidity) at 25°C for 48 h after inoculation and then placed in a greenhouse at 22/28°C (night/day). After 15 days leaf spot symptoms, similar to the original symptoms, developed on the leaves of the inoculated plants, whereas the control plants remained symptomless. The pathogenicity test was repeated twice with similar results. A fungus was re-isolated from the leaf lesions on the inoculated plants which exhibited the same morphological characteristics as the original isolates, fulfilling Koch’s postulates. R. coleosporii has been reported as a hyperparasite on the rust fungus Coleosporium plumeriae in India & Thailand and also as a pathogen infecting leaves of Campanula rapunculoides in Armenia, Clematis gouriana in Taiwan, Ipomoea batatas in Puerto Rico, and Perilla frutescens var. acuta in China (Baiswar et al. 2015; Farr and Rossman 2021). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of R. coleosporii causing leaf spot on P. frutescens var. japonica in Korea. This disease poses a threat to production and management strategies to minimize leaf spot should be developed.


Plant Disease ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dahui Liu ◽  
Qiaohuan Chen ◽  
Yuhuan Miao ◽  
Jinxin Li ◽  
Qi Yang

White Chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum morifolium), a perennial herb of the Compositae family, is used for traditional medicine. The planting area of white chrysanthemum in Macheng city, Hubei Province is about 3333 ha and the annual output can reach more than 5000 tons. In 2019, leaf spot disease appeared on almost all middle and lower leaves of white chrysanthemum in most fields of Fengshumiao county, Macheng city (N31°29′57″, E115°05′49″). This county has 33 acres white chrysanthemum planting area, and most of the plants in the county were infected with the leaf spot disease. The average incidence of leaf spot disease was 65%, and incidence in some areas was 100%. In our observations, leaf spot disease can occur throughout the whole growth period of white chrysanthemum, and it will become more serious under the high temperature and humidity condition. Usually, the diseased leaves account for 30 to 80% of the total leaves on the plant. Leaf spot initially manifests as necrotic lesions on the edge and tip of the leaf, and then the lesions coalesce and gradually expand to form irregular light-brown to brown-black spots, eventually leading to necrosis and curling of the entire leaf. This disease seriously affects the growth and development of plants, resulting in the decline of yield and quality of white chrysanthemum. Ten symptomatic leaf samples were collected, the surfaces were disinfected with 0.1% mercuric chloride (HgCl2) for 3 min, and washed with sterile distilled water three times. Ten tissue samples at the junction of diseased and healthy areas (0.5 × 0.5 cm2) were cut and placed on potato dextrose agar (PDA) medium containing 100 µg/ml cefotaxime sodium and incubated in a dark chamber at 28°C. After 2 days, the hyphal tips from the edges of growing colonies were transferred to fresh PDA plates for further purification. Finally, eight isolates were obtained and these isolates were similar in morphology. The color of purified isolates was initially white to pale yellow. After six days of incubation, colonies had a diameter of 8 cm and the cultures were pale gray and starting to secrete scarlet pigment. After 15 days incubation, the colonies were grayish brown, while the backside was reddish-brown. Gray to tan chlamydospores were observed, nearly spherical, with a wart-like surface. Unicellular chlamydospores were 7.91 to 32.23 × 12.03 to 38.42 µm (n=30) and multicellular chlamydospores were 6.32 to 25.10 × 21.75 to 100.05 µm (n=30). The morphological characteristics were similar to Epicoccum sorghinum (Kang et al. 2019). The isolate FDY-5 was chosen for molecular identification. The sequence of rDNA-ITS, TUB, and LSU of the FDY-5 were amplified (GenBank MT800929, MT799852, and MT800935, respectively) (White et al. 1990; Carbone and Kohn 1999; Lumbsch et al. 2000). BLAST results showed that the rDNA-ITS sequences, the TUB gene sequences, and LSU gene sequences of strain FDY-5 shared 99% identity with the sequences of E. sorghinum (syn. Phoma sorghina) in GenBank (MN555348.1, MF987525.1, MK516207.1, respectively). Moreover, a phylogenetic tree of the LSU gene sequence of FDY-5 was constructed based on the Neighbor-Joining (NJ) method in MEGA6 software (Tamura et al. 2013) and revealed that strain FDY-5 was closest to E. sorghinum. Based on morphological and molecular characteristics, the fungus was identified as E. sorghinum. Pathogenicity tests were conducted on two-month-old white chrysanthemum plants. The upper three leaves of three plants were randomly selected for stab treatment and were inoculated with 5 × 5 mm mycelial discs produced from a fifteen-day-old colony on PDA. The inoculated and control (treated with sterile PDA disks) plants were incubated in a moist chamber (25 ± 2 °C, RH 85%). The first lesions appeared 1 day after inoculation on leaves, and the necrotic lesion area expanded outward and showed typical symptoms 3 days later. To fulfill Koch's postulates, the pathogen was reisolated from nine inoculated leaves by repeating the above isolating operation, and confirmed as E. sorghinum by morphology. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of E. sorghinum causing leaf spot on white chrysanthemum in China. E. sorghinum has a wide host range worldwide and often causes crop yield reduction. This report will facilitate the diagnosis of white chrysanthemum leaf spot of white chrysanthemum allowing control measures to be adopted to manage this disease in a timely manner. References Carbone, I., and Kohn, L. M. 1999. Mycologia 91:553. Kang, Y., et al. 2019. Plant Dis. 103 (7):1787. Lumbsch, H., et al. 2000. Plant Biol. 2:525. Tamura, K., et al. 2013. Mol. Biol. Evol. 30:2725-2729. White, T. J., et al. 1990. Page 315 in:PCR protocols:a guide to methods and applications. Academic Press, San Diego, CA. Funding Funding was supported by Major Increase and Decrease Projects at the Central Level of China (2060302) and the National Key Research and Development Program (2017FYC1700704).


Plant Disease ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 97 (1) ◽  
pp. 139-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. M. You ◽  
X. M. Lin ◽  
J. Guo ◽  
M. D. Zhang ◽  
C. L. Liao ◽  
...  

Atractylodes macrocephala is a perennial herbaceous plant (family Asteraceae) native to China. The biennial root, Largehead Atractylodes Rhizome (LAR), is the most commonly used Chinese herbal medicine to prevent early pregnancy loss due to miscarriage. From summer 2010 to spring 2012, symptoms of root rot were observed on LAR in Xianfeng county, Enshi city, Hubei Province, China. White mold on the root of LAR could be observed at an early growth stage in the field and the white mold spread over the entire plant after 10 days, which differs from root rot of LAR caused by Fusarium oxysporum and Rhizoctonia solani, neither of which are characterized as having mycelium spreading over the whole plant (4). Where root rot symptoms were present, rhizome yield was reduced by 15% on average, with up to 40% yield loss in some fields. Under humid conditions in mid-June, the disease in the field spread quickly and the rhizomes of LAR were completely rotted. After rainfall and increasing temperature from 16 to 35°C, white mycelium appeared and plants withered within a few weeks. In April 2011 and 2012, a fungus was consistently recovered from symptomatic rhizome samples after they were surface sterilized with 0.1% mercuric chloride solution and plated onto potato dextrose agar (PDA). Pale gray colonies with short aerial mycelia and brown sclerotia formed on PDA after 7 days incubation at 28°C. Binucleate cells were observed using light microscopy and the characteristics were matched with morphological characteristics of a Ceratobasidium sp (3). Genomic DNA of the culture was extracted, and the rDNA-internal transcribed spacer sequence (GenBank Accession No. JQ926741) showed 99% identity to Ceratobasidium sp (GenBank No. H269825.1). Mycelial plugs of the culture taken from PDA were inoculated onto 40 rhizomes of 1-year-old seedlings and plants were incubated with a 16-h photoperiod at 28°C and 90% relative humidity in an artificial climate chamber where they developed typical disease symptoms after 2 days. Ten rhizomes of 1-year-old seedlings and were treated with PDA plugs only. All seedlings inoculated with the pathogen were withered and the rhizomes were completely covered with gray mycelium 2 days after inoculation, which was similar to the symptoms observed in the field. After 7 days, the symptoms were more severe than those observed in the field, with seedlings rotted completely. The main stalk of all inoculated plants was covered with gray mycelia in 4 days, and the stalk became withered, which was similar to the symptoms observed in the field. No symptoms were observed on control seedlings and plants. Koch's postulates were fulfilled by successful reisolation of Ceratobasidium sp. from diseased seedlings. The pathogenicity tests were carried out twice. Ceratobasidium sp. has been reported to cause root rot of canola in Washington (2). It has also been observed on Rehmannia in China (1). To our knowledge, this is the first report of Ceratobasidium sp. causing root rot on LAR. References: (1) B. B. Chen et al. Chin. J. Chin. Material Medica (In Chinese) 9:1137, 2011. (2) K. L. Schroeder et al. Plant Dis. 96:591, 2012. (3) B. Sneh et al. Page 39 in: Identification of Rhizoctonia Species. The American Phytopathological Society, 1991. (4) S. X. Zang et al. J. Agric. Univ. Hebei (In Chinese) 28:73, 2005.


Plant Disease ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco Bruno da Silva Café ◽  
Rhannaldy Benício Rebouças ◽  
Juvenil H. Cares ◽  
Cristiano Souza Lima ◽  
Francisco de Assis Câmara Rabelo Filho ◽  
...  

During a survey in 2018 for plant nematodes associated with roots and soil in cactus cultivation areas in Ceará State (3°44'48"S, 38°34'29"W), cysts were found on roots of mandacaru, Cereus jamacaru DC. This cactus is native to Brazil, can grow to 6-10 meters in height, and is widely distributed in the Northeast region (Romeiro-Brito et al. 2016) where it is used in construction, in disease remedies, as forage, and as an ornamental (Sales et al. 2014). Several cysts, second-stage juveniles (J2) and eggs extracted from the soil and roots, using sucrose centrifugation, were examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and light microscopy (LM) to determine morphological and morphometric characteristics. Molecular characteristics were determined by DNA extraction from J2 and embryonated eggs using a protocol specific for Heteroderidae (Subbotin et al., 2018). The internal transcribed spacer sequence (ITS) region of the rDNA and D2-D3 regions of the 28S rDNA were amplified using the universal primers TW81 (5′-GTTTCCGTAGGTGAACCTGC-3′) and AB28 (5′-ATATGCTTAAGTTCAGCGGGT-3′), D2A(5′-ACAAGTACCGTGAGGGAAAGTTG-3′) and D3B(5′-TCGGAAGGAACCAGCTACTA-3′), respectively. To confirm that mandacaru is a host for C. cacti, six plantlets of mandacaru were inoculated with 1,800 eggs of the nematode, and kept in a greenhouse at 31 ± 3 ºC and irrigated daily. Six non inoculated mandacaru plantlets served as control treatment. Morphometric characteristics of cysts (n=35) were body length, excluding neck, 555.8 ± 87.8 (354,9 - 727,6) μm, body width 392.1 ± 63.4 (297.9 - 553.7) μm, neck length 63.5 ± 25.8 (49.8-105.0) μm, length to width ratio 1.4 ± 0.2 (1.0-1.8) μm and vulval cone length 48.4 ± 15.2 (40.7 –53.6) μm. Cysts had a rough surface, were lemon-shaped to rounded and had a zigzag cuticular pattern with a protruding vulval cone. They were circumfenestrate without underbridge and bullae, but with the presence of vulval denticles. Measurements of second-stage juveniles (n = 13) included the body length 511.2 ± 33.7 (452.7 - 551.5) μm, stylet length 28.0 ± 2.8 (25.4 - 34.0) μm, tail length 50.7 ± 5.1 (40.6 - 57.4) μm, tail hyaline region 22.7 ± 2.2 (18.9 – 27.1), with a = 20.9 ± 2.2 (17.7-24.3) μm, b = 5.4 ± 0.4 (5.1-5.8) μm, b'= 3.4 ± 0.4 (3.1-3.9) μm, c = 10.2 ± 1.3 (8.9-13.3) μm and c' = 3.8 ± 0.4 (3.0-4.5) μm. The observations of essential morphological characteristics for identification indicated that the species found on C. jamacaru was Cactodera cacti (Filipjev & Schuurmans-Stekhoven, 1941) Krall & Krall, 1978. The sequences of the studied rDNA regions were submitted to GenBank (ITS: MW562829 and D2–D3 regions of 28S: MW562830). The samples used for molecular analysis showed a high degree of sequence identity (99.59%) with C. cacti, from China, Iran and USA for the ITS region. The identity of the D2-D3 regions of 28S sequence was 99.54% with C. cacti isolates from Germany and 99.41% with isolates from USA. Phylogenetic analyses were performed using Maximum likelihood (ML) method for both individual loci, confirming the species as Cactodera cacti. All inoculated mandacaru plantlets showed C. cacti cysts on the roots after 60 days, confirming that mandacaru is a host for C. cacti. This species was reported in São Paulo State, in 2001, associated with ornamental cactus cultivated in pots, but plant species were not identified (Santos et al., 2001). The second report in Brazil was to Schlumbergera sp., an ornamental plant (Oliveira et al. 2007). In both studies, the nematode was not morphologically nor molecularly characterized. Cactodera cacti has been commonly associated with cactus worldwide (Esser, 1992). It has been reported in association with C. jamacaru was first reported in 2011 in China (Duan et al. 2012). This is the first report of the occurrence of C. cacti on C. jamacaru in field conditions in Brazil, and its presence in cactus cultivation areas with agricultural importance represents a threat to cactus production in the country.


Plant Disease ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 93 (4) ◽  
pp. 433-433 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Garibaldi ◽  
G. Gilardi ◽  
D. Bertetti ◽  
M. L. Gullino

Aquilegia flabellata (Ranunculaceae), fan columbine, is a perennial herbaceous plant with brilliant blue-purple flowers with white petal tips. It can also be grown for cut flower production. In April of 2008, in several nurseries located near Biella (northern Italy), a leaf blight was observed on 10 to 15% of potted 30-day-old plants grown on a sphagnum peat substrate at 15 to 20°C and relative humidity of 80 to 90%. Semicircular, water-soaked lesions developed on leaves just above the soil line at the leaf-petiole junction and later along the leaf margins. Lesions expanded over several days along the midvein until the entire leaf was destroyed. Blighted leaves turned brown, withered, and abscised. Severely infected plants died. Diseased tissue was disinfested for 10 s in 1% NaOCl, rinsed with sterile water, and plated on potato dextrose agar (PDA) amended with 25 mg/liter streptomycin sulfate. A fungus with the morphological characteristics of Rhizoctonia solani was consistently recovered, then transferred and maintained in pure culture. Ten-day-old mycelium grown on PDA at 22 ± 1°C appeared light brown, rather compact, and had radial growth. Sclerotia were not present. Isolates obtained from affected plants successfully anastomosed with tester isolate AG 4 (AG 4 RT 31, obtained from tobacco plants). Results were consistent with other reports on anastomosis reactions (2). Pairings were also made with tester isolates of AG 1, 2.1, 2.2, 3, 6, 7, 11, and BI with no anastomoses observed between the recovered and tester isolates. The internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of rDNA was amplified using primers ITS4/ITS6 and sequenced. BLASTn analysis (1) of the 648-bp fragment showed a 100% homology with the sequence of R. solani AG-4 AB000018. The nucleotide sequence has been assigned GenBank Accession No. FJ 534555. For pathogenicity tests, the inoculum of R. solani was prepared by growing the pathogen on PDA for 10 days. Five plants of 30-day-old A. flabellata were grown in 3-liter pots. Inoculum consisting of an aqueous suspension of PDA and mycelium disks (5 g of mycelium + agar per plant) was placed at the collar of plants. Five plants inoculated with water and PDA fragments alone served as control treatments. Plants were maintained in a greenhouse at temperatures between 20 and 24°C. The first symptoms, similar to those observed in the nursery, developed 7 days after the artificial inoculation. R. solani was consistently reisolated from infected leaves and stems. Control plants remained healthy. The pathogenicity test was carried out twice with similar results. The presence of R. solani AG1-IB on A. flabellata has been reported in Japan (4), while in the United States, Rhizoctonia sp. is described on Aquilegia sp. (3). This is, to our knowledge, the first report of leaf blight of A. flabellata caused by R. solani in Italy as well as in Europe. References: (1) S. F. Altschul et al. Nucleic Acids Res. 25:3389, 1997. (2) D. E. Carling. Grouping in Rhizoctonia solani by hyphal anastomosis reactions. In: Rhizoctonia Species: Taxonomy, Molecular Biology, Ecology, Pathology and Disease Control. Kluwer Academic Publishers, The Netherlands, 1996. (3) D. F. Farr et al. Fungi on Plants and Products in the United States. The American Phytopathological Society, St Paul, MN, 1989. (4) E. Imaizumi et al. J. Gen. Plant Pathol. 66:210, 2000.


Plant Disease ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bo Xia ◽  
Yue Liang ◽  
Jianzhong Hu ◽  
Xiaoling Yan ◽  
Liqiang Yin ◽  
...  

Sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides) is an important deciduous shrub for fruit and ecological restoration in arid and semi-arid regions of China. Twelve Chinese and Russian cultivars (cv. Shenqiuhong, eshi01, ... eshi11) were planted about 1.6 acre area in a seedling nursery, located in Qingyang City of Gansu province in northwest China, where high mortality (more than 70%) of sea buckthorn was observed in late July 2019. Symptoms consisted of massive chlorosis, drooping leaves and dried-up stems on 5-year-old trees. Pieces of tree roots and stems with irregular light-brown discoloration in the xylem vessels were selected. Small pieces of discolored tissue were surface disinfested (1 min in 1% sodium hypochlorite, followed by three rinses with sterile distilled water), air-dried, and placed on potato dextrose agar (PDA) medium for 5 days at 25°C in the dark. A fungus was consistently isolated from both diseased roots and stems tissues. Colonies on PDA grew rapidly. Dense mycelia were pinky-white initially, and became carmine red color with age on the undersurface of the plate. Macroconidia were moderately curved, 3 to 5 marked septa, hyaline, thick walled, and measuring 27.8± 3.6 µm × 4.8 ± 0.5 µm (n = 30). Microconidia were abundant, pear-shaped, ellipsoid to fusoid, often with a papilla at the base, and 8.4 ± 2.2 µm ×3.1 ± 0.3 µm (n = 30). Genomic DNA was extracted for amplification and sequencing of the internal transcribed spacer region (ITS1 and ITS4 primers) (White et al. 1990) of the ribosomal DNA (Accession Nos. MN160235 to MN160238) and translation elongation factor-1 alpha (EF1 and EF2 primers, accession Nos. MN429075 to MN429078) (O’Donnell et al. 1998). The sequences revealed 99% similarity to the sequences of the ITS (AY188917), and 100% identity with EF1-α (JF740808) regions of Fusarium sporotrichioides. Based on morphological and molecular characteristics, the fungus was identified as F. sporotrichioides (Leslie and Summerell 2006). Koch’s postulates were fulfilled on healthy, potted 1-year-old sea buckthorn seedings using two isolates in a greenhouse at 25 °C, 90% relative humidity, and 12-hour light/dark photoperiod. Ten potted seedings were inoculated on the stems by placing a 5-mm-diameter mycelial plug (5-day-old PDA cultures for each isolate) into the surface of a wound created with a needle, and the inoculation sites were covered with Parafilm to maintain moisture. Ten seedings were inoculated with PDA plugs as controls. Seven to ten days after inoculation, typical symptoms of dark-brown necrotic lesions on chlorotic leaf margins were observed. About 2 weeks after inoculation, the inoculated stems were gradually dry up, accompanied by withering and fallen leaves. Control plants remained asymptomatic. Pathogens were successfully isolated from the inoculated stems again, exhibiting morphological characteristics identical to those of F. sporotrichioides. Previous papers reported F. sporotrichioides as a common pathogen caused lavender wilt (Cosic et al. 2012), foliar spots on forage corn (Moya-Elizondo et al. 2013) and maize ear rot (Wang et al. 2019). To our knowledge, this is the first report of sea buckthorn stem wilt caused by F. sporotrichioides on several Chinese and Russian cultivars in Gansu province of China. In Heilongjiang province, the same disease was reported in 2010 (Song et al. 2010), nearly 30 longitudes away from Gansu province. Therefore, this disease appears to be a serious risk for future sea buckthorn production.


Plant Disease ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 93 (6) ◽  
pp. 667-667 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. D. Wu ◽  
G. Q. Li ◽  
D. H. Jiang

Pink reineckia (Reineckea carnea (Andrews) Kunth) is an evergreen herbaceous perennial plant widely grown as groundcover or for medical purposes in southern China. In 2006 and 2007, severe leaf blight was observed on pink reineckia in Wuhan, China. On newly formed pink reineckia leaves, symptoms were first noted in early May as grayish to dark brown, oval or irregular-shaped lesions, 1.5 to 0.2 × 0.5 to 0.1 cm (n = 50), on the leaf margin or leaf tip. A yellowish halo surrounded each lesion. Lesions enlarged and coalesced and diseased leaves became blighted during the fall and winter. In severely infected plots, most plants became straw-colored and had to be replaced with healthy seedlings. A fungus was isolated from surface-disinfested lesions on potato dextrose agar (PDA) at a frequency of 85.7%. One of 30 isolates, designated C2, was characterized further. The fungus growing on PDA at 20°C for 14 days formed zonate white colonies and black acervular conidiomata. Conidia of the fungus aggregated on acervuli as droplets. Conidia were fusiform and 20.7 to 32.2 × 5.8 to 9.8 μm (n = 50). Each conidium had one hyaline apical cell, one hyaline basal cell, and three dark brown median cells. There were two to four hyaline filamentous appendages 8.1 to 20.4 μm long attached to each apical cell and one hyaline appendage 2.4 to 7.1 μm long attached to each basal cell. The cultural and morphological characteristics of isolate C2 matched the description for Pestalotiopsis microspora (Speg.) Batista & Peres (1,2). The internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of the ribosomal DNA (ITS1-5.8S-ITS2) was PCR-amplified and sequenced. The ITS sequence (606 bp) for isolate C2 (GenBank Accession No. EU935587) was 100% similar to P. microspora isolates TA-57 (GenBank Accession No. AY924267) and LK32 (GenBank Accession No. DQ001002). Pathogenicity of isolate C2 was tested with the method described by Keith et al. (2). Four detached leaves were wound inoculated or inoculated without wounding with mycelia on agar plugs (4 mm in diameter; three plugs per leaf) or conidial suspensions (107 conidia per ml; 20 μl on each of three sites per leaf). Control leaves were wound inoculated with PDA or sterile water. All inoculated leaves were maintained in a moist enamel tray under fluorescent light for 7 days at 20°C. The test was performed twice. After 4 days of incubation, necrotic leaf lesions resembling symptoms that occurred in the field were observed on the wound-inoculated leaves, whereas the control leaves and C2-inoculated leaves without wounding remained healthy. Therefore, wounding was necessary for symptom development (2). A fungus was reisolated from the C2-induced leaf lesions and the morphology of colonies and conidia were identical to that for isolate C2 of P. microspora. On the basis of the results of isolations, inoculations, and fungal identification, P. microspora was determined to be the causal agent for leaf blight of pink reineckia occurring in Wuhan, China. This fungus previously has been reported as the causal agent of scab disease of Psidium guajava in Hawaii (2), decline of Torreya taxifolia in Florida (3), and leaf blight of Lindera obtusiloba in Korea (1). To our knowledge, this is the first report of the occurrence of P. microspora on R. carnea. References: (1) Y. H. Jeon et al. Plant Pathol. 56:349, 2007. (2) L. M. Keith et al. Plant Dis. 90:16, 2006. (3) M. W. Schwartz et al. Plant Dis. 80:600, 1996.


Plant Disease ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 97 (6) ◽  
pp. 845-845 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. N. Xu ◽  
Z. S. Zhou ◽  
Y. X. Wu ◽  
F. M. Chi ◽  
Z. R. Ji ◽  
...  

Blueberry (Vaccinium spp.) is becoming increasingly popular in China as a nutritional berry crop. With the expansion of blueberry production, many diseases have become widespread in different regions of China. In August of 2012, stem and leaf spots symptomatic of anthracnose were sporadically observed on highbush blueberries in a field located in Liaoning, China, where approximately 15% of plants were diseased. Symptoms first appeared as yellow to reddish, irregularly-shaped lesions on leaves and stems. The lesions then expanded, becoming dark brown in the center and surrounded by a reddish halo. Leaf and stem tissues (5 × 5 mm) were cut from the lesion margins and surface-disinfected in 70% ethanol for 30 s, followed by three rinses with sterile water before placing on potato dextrose agar (PDA). Plates were incubated at 28°C. Colonies were initially white, becoming grayish-white to gray with yellow spore masses. Conidia were one-celled, hyaline, and cylindrical with rounded ends, measuring 15.0 to 25.0 × 4.0 to 7.5 μm. No teleomorph was observed. The fungus was tentatively identified as Colletotrichum gloeosporioides (PenZ.) PenZ & Sacc. (teleomorph Glomerella cingulata (Stoneman) Spauld. & H. Schrenk) based on morphological characteristics of the colony and conidia (1). Genomic DNA was extracted from isolate XCG1 and the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of the ribosomal DNA (ITS1–5.8S-ITS2) was amplified with primer pairs ITS1 and ITS4. BLAST searches showed 99% identity with C. gloeosporioides isolates in GenBank (Accession No. AF272779). The sequence of isolate XCG1 (C. gloeosporioides) was deposited into GenBank (JX878503). Pathogenicity tests were conducted on 2-year-old potted blueberries, cv. Berkeley. Stems and leaves of 10 potted blueberry plants were wounded with a sterilized needle and sprayed with a suspension of 105 conidia per ml of sterilized water. Five healthy potted plants were inoculated with sterilized water as control. Dark brown lesions surrounded by reddish halos developed on all inoculated leaves and stems after 7 days, and the pathogen was reisolated from lesions of 50% of inoculated plants as described above. The colony and conidial morphology were identical to the original isolate XCG1. No symptoms developed on the control plants. The causal agent of anthracnose on blueberry was identified as C. gloeosporioides on the basis of morphological and molecular characteristics, and its pathogenicity was confirmed with Koch's postulates. Worldwide, it has been reported that blueberry anthracnose might be caused by C. acutatum and C. gloeosporioides (2). However, we did not isolate C. acutatum during this study. To our knowledge, this is the first report of stem and leaf anthracnose of blueberry caused by C. gloeosporioides in China. References: (1) J. M. E. Mourde. No 315. CMI Descriptions of Pathogenic Fungi and Bacteria. Kew, Surrey, UK, 1971. (2) N. Verma, et al. Plant Pathol. 55:442, 2006.


Plant Disease ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiang Zhang ◽  
Yanru Zhang ◽  
Hongli Shi ◽  
Yunfeng Huo

Yucca gloriosa L. is introduced to China as a garden plant because of its attractive tubular flowers (Ding et al. 2020). In 2020 and 2021, a foliar disease occurred on approximately 10% of the Y. gloriosa plants in the campus of Henan Institute of Science and Technology, Xinxiang (35°18′N, 113°54′E), Henan Province, China. At the early stages, symptoms appeared as small brown spots on the tip of the leaves. As the disease developed, the spots gradually expanded and turned into necrotic tissue with a clear brown border. The length of lesions ranged from 1 to 3 cm. Infected tissue samples were cut into small pieces, surface sterilized with 75% ethanol for 30 s followed by 0.5% NaClO for 2 min, rinsed thrice with sterile water and plated on potato dextrose agar (PDA). After incubation at 25℃ for 3 days, five fungal isolates were collected and purified using single spore culturing. Morphological observations were made on the 7-day-old cultures. Colonies on PDA were white at first and then turned to dark olive or black along with profuse sporulation. Conidia were borne on branched conidiophores, light brown to dark brown, ellipsoidal to obpyriform, and 20.5 to 43.6 ×7.5 to 15.4 μm in size, with 2-6 transverse septa and 0-3 longitudinal septa (n = 50). The morphological characteristics of the five isolates were consistent with the description for Alternaria alternata (Simmons 2007). One representative isolate (ZQ20) was selected for molecular identification. The internal transcribed spacers (ITS)-rDNA, translation elongation factor-1 alpha (TEF-1α), Alternaria major allergen (Alt a1), and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) gene regions were amplified with primer pairs ITS1/ITS4 (White et al. 1990), EFl-728F/ EFI-986R (Carbone and Kohn, 1999), Alt-for/Alt-rev (Hong et al. 2005), and gpd1/gpd2 (Berbee et al. 1999), respectively. Their sequences were submitted to GenBank (ITS, MW832377; TEF-1α, MW848791; Alt a1, MW848792; GAPDH, MW848793). BLAST searches showed ≥99% nucleotide identity to the sequences of A. alternata (ITS, 100% to KF465761; TEF-1α, 100% to MT133312; Alt a1, 100% to KY923227; and GAPDH, 99% to MK683863). Thus, the fungus was identified as A. alternata based on its morphological and molecular characteristics. To confirm its pathogenicity, 25 healthy leaves of five 2-year-old Y. gloriosa plants were used. Leaves were wounded with one sterile needle and inoculated with 5-mm-diameter fungal agar disks obtained from 5-day-old cultures. Sterile PDA disks of the same size were used as the controls. Treated plants were covered with a plastic bag at 12 to 25℃ for 48 h to ensure a high level of moisture. After 15 days, the inoculated plants developed the symptoms similar to those observed in naturally infected plants, whereas the control plants were symptomless. The fungus was reisolated from the symptomatic leaves with the same morphological and molecular characteristics as the original isolates, fulfilling the Koch's postulates. Leaf spot caused by A. alternata in the Yucca plants has been reported in India (Pandey 2019). To our knowledge, this is the first report of A. alternata causing leaf spot on Y. gloriosa in China. Identification of the cause of the disease is important to developing effective disease management strategies.


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