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Hidden diversity of Macrophomina associated with broadacre and horticultural crops in Australia

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Abstract

Worldwide, most isolates of Macrophomina (Botryosphaeriaceae) have been attributed to the generalist phytopathogen M. phaseolina. Since 2014, three cryptic species of Macrophomina have been recognised by molecular methods. This study elucidates the taxonomy of Macrophomina species associated with broadacre and horticultural crops in Australia. A five-locus phylogenetic analysis of 80 isolates of Macrophomina from 28 plant species in Australia, combined with genealogical concordance phylogenetic species recognition and coalescent-based species delimitation approaches, found M. phaseolina, M. pseudophaseolina and supported the introduction of M. tecta sp. nov. Macrophomina phaseolina was the most frequently isolated (88%). Macrophomina pseudophaseolina is reported for the first time in Australia. Macrophomina tecta was isolated from stems of Sorghum bicolor and Vigna radiata with charcoal rot symptoms in New South Wales and Queensland. The potential for two or more Macrophomina species to co-infect the same host has implications for disease epidemiology and pathogen evolution. Future investigations into the distribution, biology, host range and population diversity of the new Macrophomina records are needed.

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Acknowledgments

This project was supported by the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) projects DAQ00186 and USQ1807-001RTX, and the Broad Acre Cropping Initiative (BACI), a partnership between the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries of the Queensland Government and the University of Southern Queensland. An isolate was collected and identified through project DJP1907-002RMX funded by the GRDC. We sincerely thank the growers and agronomists in Queensland and NSW for granting us access to their paddocks for sampling in 2018 and 2019. We are grateful to Rob Long (Crown Analytical Services) for providing us with sorghum stalk samples. We thank Ms. Encarnacion Adorada for excellent technical support in fungal isolation and DNA extraction. We thank Dr. Neeraj Purushotham for assistance in sampling, isolation, and DNA extraction of some of the Macrophomina isolates collected from sorghum in Queensland in 2019.

Availability of data and material

All sequences produced in this study are publicly available in NCBI GenBank Database. Alignments, trees, and analyses are available in TreeBASE. Fungal isolates are available from international culture collections.

Funding

This project was funded by the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) project USQ1807-001RTX, and the Broad Acre Cropping Initiative (BACI), a partnership between the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries of the Queensland Government and the University of Southern Queensland.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Crop Health, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Qld, 4350, Australia

    Barsha Poudel, Roger G. Shivas, Dante L. Adorada, Lisa A. Kelly, Adam H. Sparks, Yu Pei Tan & Niloofar Vaghefi

  2. Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, Dutton Park, Qld, 4102, Australia

    Roger G. Shivas & Yu Pei Tan

  3. School of Agriculture and Environment and the UWA Institute of Agriculture, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA, 6009, Australia

    Martin J. Barbetti

  4. New South Wales Department of Primary Industries, Tamworth, NSW, 2340, Australia

    Sean L. Bithell

  5. Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, Toowoomba, Qld, 4350, Australia

    Lisa A. Kelly

  6. New South Wales Department of Primary Industries, Grafton, NSW, 2460, Australia

    Natalie Moore

  7. Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, Perth, WA, 6000, Australia

    Adam H. Sparks

  8. Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, South Perth, WA, 6151, Australia

    Geoff Thomas

  9. New South Wales Department of Primary Industries, Calala, NSW, 2340, Australia

    Joop Van Leur

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  1. Barsha Poudel
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Correspondence to Niloofar Vaghefi.

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Poudel, B., Shivas, R.G., Adorada, D.L. et al. Hidden diversity of Macrophomina associated with broadacre and horticultural crops in Australia. Eur J Plant Pathol 161, 1–23 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10658-021-02300-0

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