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Elsinoë punicae causing scab of pomegranates in South Africa does not cause disease on citrus

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Abstract

Elsinoë punicae was shown to be responsible for a new disease on pomegranates in South Africa. This disease has been found in three of the pomegranate production areas in the Cape provinces, and is characterised by scab-like symptoms on the fruit and brown spots on the leaves. Representative isolates were characterised by morphology, cultural growth and sequencing of the ITS. Additionally, the LSU, rpb2 and TEF1-α gene regions were also sequenced for one representative isolate from pomegranate. Phylogenetic analyses of the four loci confirmed the isolates as E. punicae. RAPD analyses were also performed with three primers on 19 isolates of E. punicae. The analyses showed that E. punicae isolates clustered together with high support apart from the reference isolates of E. australis, E. fawcetti and E. australis pathotype jojoba. Pathogenicity tests were conducted with E. punicae and two reference isolates (E. australis, E. fawcetti - Citrus pathogens) on whole plant leaves and detached leaves of pomegranate and different citrus types [grapefruit, rough lemon, navels, Valencias and mandarins] in official quarantine facilities. The results confirmed E. punicae as a pathogen of pomegranate and not citrus.

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Acknowledgements

Citrus Research International is thanked for financial support. The South African Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and the Department of Plant Pathology, University of Stellenbosch are thanked for technical and administrative support. Dr. GJ Ash kindly provided an isolate of Elsinoë australis pathotype jojoba.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Citrus Research International, PO Box 28, Nelspruit, 1200, South Africa

    Elma Carstens, Paul H. Fourie & Vaughan Hattingh

  2. Department of Plant Pathology, Stellenbosch University, Private Bag X1, Matieland, 7602, South Africa

    Elma Carstens, Shaun D. Langenhoven, Romain Pierron, Paul H. Fourie & Lizel Mostert

  3. Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Private Bag X5015, Stellenbosch, 7599, South Africa

    Wilhelm Laubscher

  4. ICA International Chemicals (Pty) Ltd, PO Box 2312, Stellenbosch, 7601, South Africa

    Jakobus J. Serfontein

  5. Hortgro, PO Box 163, Paarl, 7620, South Africa

    Carolien M. Bezuidenhout

  6. Alternafruit, Private Bag X3036, Paarl, 7620, South Africa

    Elrita Venter

  7. Department of Horticultural Science, Stellenbosch University, Private Bag X1, Matieland, Stellenbosch, 7602, South Africa

    Vaughan Hattingh

Authors
  1. Elma Carstens
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  2. Shaun D. Langenhoven
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  3. Romain Pierron
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  4. Wilhelm Laubscher
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  5. Jakobus J. Serfontein
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  6. Carolien M. Bezuidenhout
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  7. Elrita Venter
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  8. Paul H. Fourie
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  9. Vaughan Hattingh
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  10. Lizel Mostert
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lizel Mostert.

Electronic supplementary material

Supplementary Fig. 1

Rapid Amplified Polymorphic DNA profiles of E. punicae, E. australis, E. fawcetii and E. australis pathotype jojoba. These fingerprinting profiles were generated using primers a) OPX-08, b) OPX-12, and c) OPX-17. The isolates depicted in this figure are as follow: 1) E. fawcetti CBS 139.25, 2) E. australis pathotype jojoba DAR77387, 3) E. australis CBS 230.64, 4) E. punicae isolates STE-U 7685, 5) STE-U 7686, 6) STE-U 7740, 7) STE-U 7745, 8) STE-U 7749, 9) STE-U 7759, 10) STE-U 7777 11) STE-U 7785. M is the 1 kb ladder (PDF 223 kb)

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Carstens, E., Langenhoven, S.D., Pierron, R. et al. Elsinoë punicae causing scab of pomegranates in South Africa does not cause disease on citrus. Australasian Plant Pathol. 47, 405–411 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13313-018-0572-x

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