Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Phylogenetic and morphological characteristics of Alternaria alternata causing leaf spot disease on Camellia sinensis in China

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Australasian Plant Pathology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Severe lesions along with black spots on tea leaves were observed in the commercial tea plantations located in Chongqing district of China during the April to July of 2015. The pathogens isolated from diseased tea leaves matched the morphological characteristics of Alternaria alternata that were rarely found on tea plant [Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Kuntze] in all the tea-growing countries worldwide. The characteristics of A. alternata were further confirmed by both pathogenicity tests and multi-gene phylogenetic analyses derived from internal transcribed spacer (ITS), glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) and beta-tubulin (β-tubulin). The combination of ITS, GAPDH and β-tubulin was more useful for delimitation in the genus Alternaria than any single gene region. Pathogenicity tests conducted on healthy tea leaves showed typical leaf spot symptoms, confirming the role of all the A. alternata isolates as the causal agent of leaf spot disease on tea plants.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Abkhoo J, Sabbagh SK (2014) Evidence of Alternaria alternata causing leaf spot of Aloe vera in Iran. J Phytopathol 162:516–518

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Andersen B, Kroger E, Roberts RG (2002) Chemical and morphological segregation of Alternaria arborescens, A. infectoria and A. tenuissima species groups. Mycol Res 106:170–182

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bernadovičová S, Ivanová H (2011) Hyphomycetes and coelomycetes fungi isolated from affected leaves and twigs of cherry laurel trees. Folia Oecologica 38:137–145

    Google Scholar 

  • Chakraborty BN, Das-Biswas R, Sharma M (2006) Alternaria alternata – a new foliar fungal pathogen of tea in north Bengal, India. Plant Pathol 55:303

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chen WQ, Zhang TY (1997) Two new species of Alternaria from China. Mycol Res 101:1257–1258

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chen YJ, Qiao WJ, Zeng L, Shen DH, Liu Z, Wang SH, Tong HR (2017) Characterization, pathogenicity and phylogenetic analyses of Colletotrichum species associated with Brown blight disease on Camellia sinensis in China. Plant Dis 101:1022–1028

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Coates L, Johnson G (1997) Postharvest diseases of fruit and vegetables. In: Brown JF, Ogle HJ (eds) Plant pathogens and plant diseases. Rockvale publications, Armidale, Australia, pp 533–548

    Google Scholar 

  • Conrath U, Linke C, Jeblick W, Geigenberger P, Quick WP, Neuhaus HE (2003) Enhanced resistance Phytophthora infestans and Alternaria solani in leaves and tubers, respectively, of potato plants with decreased activity of the plastidic ATP/ADP transporter. Planta 217:75–83

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Cota BB, Rosa LH, Caligiorne RB, Rabello ALT, Almeida Alves TM, Rosa CA, Zani CL (2008) Altenusin, a biphenyl isolated from the endophytic fungus Alternaria sp., inhibits trypanothione reductase from Trypanosoma cruzi. FEMS Microbiol Lett 285:177–182

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ellis MB (1971) Dematiaceous Hyphomycetes. Commonwealth Mycological Institute, Kew, 608ff

  • Ellis MB (1976) More Dematiaceous Hyphomycetes. Commonwealth Mycological Institute, Kew, 507ff

  • Hong SG, Maccaroni M, Figuli PJ, Belisario A, Pryor BM (2006) Polyphasic classification of Alternaria isolated from hazelnut and walnut fruit in Europe. Mycol Res 104:1312–1321

    Google Scholar 

  • Kimura M (1980) A simple method for estimating evolutionary rate of base substitutions through comparative studies of nucleotide sequences. J Mol Evol 16:111–120

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lawrence DP, Gannibal PB, Dugan FM, Pryor BM (2014) Characterization of Alternaria isolates from the infectoria species-group and a new taxon from Arrhenatherum, Pseudoalternaria arrhenatheria sp. nov. Mycol Prog 13:257–276

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • O’Donnell K, Cigelnik E (1997) Two divergent intragenomic rDNA ITS2 types within a monophyletic lineage of the fungus Fusarium are nonorthologous. Mol Phylogenet Evol 7:103–116

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pelaez F, Collado J, Arenal F, Basilio A, Cabello A, Matas MTD, García JB, Del Val AG, Gonzalez V, Gorrochategui J, Hernandez IM, Platas G, Vicente F (1998) Endophytic fungi from plants living on gypsum soils as a source of secondary metabolites with antimicrobial activity. Mycol Prog 102:755–761

    Google Scholar 

  • Queiroz FM, Muniz M, de FS, Menez M (2001) Alternaria brasiliensis sp. nov., a leaf pathogen on Phaseolus vulgaris. Mycopathologia 150:61–65

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Saitou N, Nei M (1987) The neighbor-joining method: a new method for reconstructing phylogenetic trees. Mol Biol Evol 4:406–425

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Simmons EG (1992) Alternaria taxonomy: current status, viewpoint, challenge. In: Chelkowski J, Viskonti A (eds) Alternaria: biology, plant diseases and metabolites. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp 1–35

    Google Scholar 

  • Simmons EG (1993) Alternaria themes and variations (54–62). Mycotaxon 46:171–199

    Google Scholar 

  • Simmons EG (1995) Alternaria themes and variations (112–144). Mycotaxon 55:55–163

    Google Scholar 

  • Simmons EG (2000) Alternaria themes and variations (244–286). Mycotaxon 75:1–115

    Google Scholar 

  • Tamura K, Stecher G, Peterson D, Lewis PO (2013) MEGA6: molecular evolutionary genetics analysis version 6.0. Mol Biol Evol 30:2725–2729

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Templeton MD, Rikkerink EH, Solon SL, Crowhurst RN (1992) Cloning and molecular characterization of the glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase-encoding gene and cDNA from the plant pathogenic fungus Glomerella cingulata. Gene 122:225–230

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Than PP, Jeewon R, Hyde KD, Pongsupasamit S, Mongkolporn O, Taylor PWJ (2008) Characterization and pathogenicity of Colletotrichum species associated with anthracnose on chilli (Capsicum spp.) in Thailand. Plant Pathol 57:562–572

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Visconti A, Sibilia A (1994) Alternaria toxins. In: Miller JD, Trenholm HL (eds) Mycotoxins in grain. Compounds other than aflatoxins. Eagan press, St. Paul, pp 315–358

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang XF, Li ZA, Tang KZ, Zhou CY, Yi L (2010) First report of Alternaria Brown spot of Citrus caused by Alternaria alternata in Yunnan Province, China. Plant Dis 94:375

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • White TJ, Bruns T, Lee S, Taylor J (1990) Amplification and direct sequencing of fungal ribosomal RNA genes for phylogenetics. In: Innis MA, Gelfand DH, Sninsky JJ, White TJ (eds) PCR protocols: a guide to methods and amplifications. San Diego. Academic Press, USA, pp 315–322

    Google Scholar 

  • Woudenberg JHC, Seidl MF, Groenewald JZ, de Vries M, Stielow JB, Thomma BPHJ, Crous PW (2015) Alternaria section Alternaria: species, formae speciales or pathotypes? Stud Mycol 82:1–21

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Zhou LX, Xu WX (2014) First report of Alternaria alternata causing leaf spots of tea (Camellia sinensis) in China. Plant Dis 98:697

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (31700607), the Natural Science Foundation Project of CQ CSTC (cstc2015jcyjA80019) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (XDJK2017C045, XDJK2016C061 and SWU115057) for financial support.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Tea Science, College of Food Science, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400715, China

    Ying-Juan Chen, Qing Meng, Liang Zeng & Hua-Rong Tong

Authors
  1. Ying-Juan Chen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Qing Meng
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Liang Zeng
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Hua-Rong Tong
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hua-Rong Tong.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Chen, YJ., Meng, Q., Zeng, L. et al. Phylogenetic and morphological characteristics of Alternaria alternata causing leaf spot disease on Camellia sinensis in China. Australasian Plant Pathol. 47, 335–342 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13313-018-0561-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13313-018-0561-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation