Abstract
Onion (Allium cepa) is an important globally cultivated crop and is known to be susceptible to purple blotch caused by Alternaria porri. The causal pathogens of blight symptoms from onion in Myanmar were isolated and identified. In addition to Stemphylium vesicarium, a large-spored Alternaria with unique morphology as well as a small-spored Alternaria were obtained. To identify the two Alternaria fungal pathogens, morphological characteristics and molecular phylogenies based on multigene sequence analysis of the internal transcribed spacer of ribosomal DNA (ITS) region, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), Alternaria major allergen (ALT), translation-elongation factor 1 (EF1-α), and RNA polymerase second largest subunit (RPB2) genes were used. This revealed the presence of a small-spored Alternaria, A. burnsii, and a new large-spored species here described as A. cepae sp. nov. The novel species is morphologically distinct from its closely related species of A. montanica. Pathogenicity assays revealed that Stemphylium vesicarium, A. burnsii, and A. cepae were the causal agents of the onion leaf blight of the current study, and that A. cepae exhibited the most virulence. However, A. porri, which has been reported as the most important onion pathogen worldwide, was absent during this investigation.
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Data availability
All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article (and its supplementary files). All sequences data generated in this study are available in NCBI GenBank.
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Acknowledgements
The authors sincerely thank Prof. Jian Ma for the assistance on the nomenclature of the new species.
Funding
This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31400014).
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. The samples collection were carried out by Aye Aye Htun. Deng Jian Xin supported scientific guidance during laboratory and field studies. The initial fungal isolation was performed by Aye Aye Htun, who led the entire research work with Liu Hai Feng and He Lin. Xia Zhen Zhou and Sein Lai Lai Aung contributed to data analysis. The manuscript was written by Aye Aye Htun, and all authors provided critical feedback and helped shape the research, analysis, and manuscript. Deng Jian Xin supervised the final version as well. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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ESM 1
Fig. S1 Phylogenetic tree combined dataset of ITS, GAPDH and cmdA sequences of Stemphylium vesicarium and its closest relative taxa. Bayesian posterior probabilities (PP) > 0.70, maximum likelihood (ML) >70% and parsimony bootstrap values (BS) > 70% are indicated above/below the branches (PP/ML/BS). Taxa names, strain numbers and geographic origins are provided. The scale bar represented the number of nucleotide substitutions. Strains from the present study were shown in bold. Type strain (T) is noted in superscript (PPTX 60 kb)
ESM 2
Fig. S2 Morphological characteristics of Stemphylium vesicarium and the pathogenicity on Allium cepa. Colony on PDA for 7 days at 25 °C (A); Sporulation patterns (B); Conidiophore (C) and conidia (D) on SNA; Pathogenicity on living leaves with inoculated mycelium plug method after 4 days inoculation (E). Scale bars = 25 μm (PNG 1957 kb)
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Htun, A.A., Liu, H.F., He, L. et al. New species and new record of Alternaria from onion leaf blight in Myanmar. Mycol Progress 21, 59–69 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11557-021-01765-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11557-021-01765-x