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Alternaria species associated with early blight epidemics on tomato and other Solanaceae crops in northwestern Algeria

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Abstract

Early blight is a common disease of Solanaceae crops worldwide. The occurrence of Alternaria spp. was studied during three epidemics on tomato in northwestern Algeria. Alternaria was detected in more than 80 % of the diseased plant samples and accounted for more than 50 % of the total fungal isolates recovered from these samples. Morphological and molecular investigations revealed that small-spored isolates producing beaked conidia, i.e. belonging to the section alternaria, were prominent in most of the surveyed locations representing more than 80 % of the total Alternaria isolates in three locations (Mascara, Ain Témouchent and Sidi Belabbèsse). Based on their sporulation patterns they were recognized as A. alternata and A. tenuissima. Small-spored isolates producing conidia without beak and assigned to A. consortialis were also found at a low frequency (< 1 %). Large-spored isolates producing conidia ended by typical long beaks and identified as A. linariae (syn. A. tomatophila), A. solani and A. grandis were also recovered from all the sampled areas and represented 33.8 %, 6.3 % and 1.3 % of the total Alternaria isolates, respectively. Pathogenicity tests on tomato with a selection of 85 strains representative of the isolates collection revealed that all the tested isolates were able to produce extending lesions on inoculated leaves albeit with variable intensity. Large-spored species included the most aggressive isolates. Small-spored Alternaria, although less aggressive than large-spored Alternaria, had the ability to provoke brown necrotic spots and circumstantially developed synergistic interactions in mixed infections with moderately aggressive isolates of A. linariae.

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Acknowledgments

Part of this work was done during a stay at the University of Angers- France, financed by a grant from the University of Oran.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire de Microbiologie Appliquée, Université d’Oran Ahmed Ben Bella1, BP1524 El M’naouer, 31000, Oran, Algeria

    Nabahat Bessadat, Soumaya Benichou, Mabrouk Kihal & Djamel E. Henni

  2. UMR 1345 IRHS, Université d’Angers, INRA, Agrocampus-Ouest, SFR 4207 QUASAV, 42 rue G. Morel, 49071, Beaucouzé, France

    Romain Berruyer, Bruno Hamon, Nelly Bataille-Simoneau & Philippe Simoneau

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  1. Nabahat Bessadat
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Correspondence to Philippe Simoneau.

Electronic supplementary material

Online resource 1

Scale used to estimate disease severity on tomato leaves inoculated by Alternaria spp. (TIFF 1141 kb)

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Online resource 2

Representative results of the analysis of PCR products obtained after amplification on DNA extracted from symptomatic tomato tissues with primer sets (A) ITSF1–4, (B) AAF2-R3, (C) OAtF4-R2, and (D) OAtF7-R6 specific for fungi, Alternaria spp. of the alternata section, A. linariae, and A. solani, respectively. Lanes 1 correspond to positive controls and were loaded with PCR products obtained after amplification with relevant primer sets from DNA of either A. alternata CBS916.96 (A, B) or A. linariae EGS-44-024 (C) or A. solani (CBS110.41). Infected tomato samples were collected in Oran (lanes 2, 8, 12), Mostaganem (lanes 3, 5), Tlemcen (lanes 4, 11), Ain Témouchent (lanes 3, 6, 10), Mascara (lane 7) and Sidi Bel Abbèsse (lane 9). Lanes M were loaded with the molecular marker. Approximate sizes (in bp) of the amplification products are indicated on the left. (TIFF 494 kb)

High resolution image (GIF 111 kb)

Online resource 3

Effect of cross inoculations on disease severity: Student t-test associated p-values. (DOCX 62 kb)

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Bessadat, N., Berruyer, R., Hamon, B. et al. Alternaria species associated with early blight epidemics on tomato and other Solanaceae crops in northwestern Algeria. Eur J Plant Pathol 148, 181–197 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10658-016-1081-9

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