Characterization of Fusarium nirenbergiae and F. elaeidis causing diseases on Dipladenia and Grevillea plants
2022
Aiello, Dalia | Gusella, Giorgio | Vitale, Alessandro | Polizzi, Giancarlo
During 2019, severe symptoms of crown, basal stem and root rot associated with vascular discoloration were observed on Dipladenia and Grevillea ornamental species in a nursery located in Southern Italy. Fusarium spp. colonies were consistently recovered from infected tissues on semi-selective media. Molecular and phylogenetic analyses of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) of rDNA, RNA polymerase second largest subunit (RPB2) and elongation factor 1-alpha (tef1-α) regions allowed to identify F. nirenbergiae and F. elaeidis as causal agents of infections from Dipladenia Sundaville® and Grevillea gracilis, respectively. The pathogenicity of both fungi was confirmed on young pot-grown cuttings of two ornamental plants, where they reproduced symptoms very similar to those observed in the nursery. Re-isolation of fungi from symptomatic tissues definitively confirmed aetiology of infections. In addition, among tested Dipladenia cultivars, “Classic Red” showed the significant highest percentage of disease incidence (almost 40% of plants) one month post inoculation. Similarly, disease occurrence recorded on young cuttings G. gracilis reached the maximum level 20 days after inoculation, interesting 100% of plants. This study reports the occurrence of Fusarium nirenbergiae and F. elaeidis causing diseases on Dipladenia and Grevillea plants.
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