First Report of Leaf Spot Disease (“Negrilla”) on <i>Agave salmiana</i> Otto Ex Salm-Dyck (ssp. <i>salmiana</i>) Plants Caused by <i>Bipolaris zeae</i> Zivan in Mexico
2024
Teresa Romero-Cortes | Victor H. Pérez España | José A. Pescador-Rojas | Eduardo Rangel-Cortés | María M. Armendaríz-Ontiveros | Jaime A. Cuervo-Parra
<i>Agave</i> genera include slow-growing plants with cultural and economic roots dating back to pre-Columbian times in Mexico. Several species have a widespread presence in the country and are cultivated and/or used directly from the field to obtain various derived products. <i>Agave salmiana</i> is widely used in the region of the High Valleys of Apan, Hidalgo, Mexico. However, fungal diseases are causing considerable losses to <i>Agave</i> crops. For this reason, fungi strains from maguey plants from Apan, Hidalgo, with “Negrilla” disease symptoms were isolated and identified morphologically and molecularly. The results provide information on a new disease disseminated in <i>A. salmiana</i> plants, which causes symptoms such as black spots on the leaves due to pathogenic fungi of the genera <i>Bipolaris</i>. The morphological and molecular characterization located the phytopathogenic fungus as new isolates of <i>Bipolaris zeae</i>. Finally, the re-isolation of the causal agent of the disease was achieved in all pathogenicity tests, verifying that the symptoms observed in the maguey plants were caused by <i>B. zeae</i>, thus corroborating Koch’s postulates, and constituting the first report of this fungus as a pathogen of <i>A. salmiana</i> in Mexico.
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