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Apple (Malus pumila Mill.) is an important fruit crop worldwide. During 2020, about 17% of 100 apple trees surveyed in Aral, Xinjiang, China (39°0′37.3"N, 88°10′11.8"E) showed symptoms of bark fester, vascular bundle browning, dead branches, and tree death. To identify the causal agent, ten symptomatic bark tissue samples were taken from the lesion margin (2 × 2 cm) of five trees. Wood samples (0.5 × 0.5 cm) were surface-disinfected with 1% v/v sodium hypochlorite and 75% v/v ethanol, rinsed with sterile distilled water, transferred onto potato dextrose agar (PDA) and incubated in the dark at 26 °C for 5 days. Colonies on PDA were initially white with aerial mycelia but gradually darkened. Mycelia were disarticulated into 0 to 1 septate, cylindrical-to-oval shaped, thick-walled, hyaline-to-brown arthroconidia occurring singly or in chains averaging 8.9 ± 3.7 × 5.2 ± 2.1 μm (n = 20). These morphological features are consistent with the description of Neoscytalidium dimidiatum (Penz.) Crous & Slippers (Crous et al. 2006). The ITS, EF1-α and tub2 gene regions of the reference isolate (Code: WL2-D) were sequenced using primers ITS1/ITS4, EF1-728F/EF1-986R and BT2a/BT2b, and the sequences were deposited in GenBank with accession numbers MZ028464 (ITS), MW862012 (TEF1-α) and MZ028463 (tub2). The sequences showed 99.04% to 100% homology to N. dimidiatum strain Arp2-D (ITS: MH861121, EF1-α: MK816355 and tub2: MK816354). For pathogenicity assessment, ten healthy seedlings were inoculated (control plants with PDA only) using the punch method. After 14 days, all isolates induced canker symptoms (dark-brown necrotic lesions) at the inoculation site; the inoculated fungus was re-isolated from all inoculated branches. A similar canker disease was reported in Turkey (Ören et al. 2022). To our knowledge, this is the first report of N. dimidiatum inducing canker disease on apple trees in China (Farr and Rossman 2022).
References
Crous PW, Slippers B, Wingfield MJ, Rheeder J, Marasas WF, Philips AJ, Alves A, Burgess T, Barber P, Groenewald JZ (2006) Phylogenetic lineages in the Botryosphaeriaceae. Stud Mycol 55:235–253. https://doi.org/10.3114/sim.55.1.235
Farr DF, Rossman AY (2022) Fungal Databases, US. National Fungus Collections, ARS, USDA. Retrieved March 16, 2022, from https://nt.ars-grin.gov/fungaldatabases/
Ören E, Palacıoğlu G, Koca G, Ozan GN, Bayraktar H (2022) First report of Neoscytalidium dimidiatum causing branch dieback and canker on apple in Turkey. J Plant Pathol 104(1):429–429. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42161-021-00990-3
Funding
This study was funded by The Joint Funds of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. U1903206); Project of Scientific Research and Innovation for postgraduates in Tarim University (Grant No. TDBSCX202101).
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Shuaishuai Sha and Zhe Wang are co-authors.
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Sha, S., Wang, Z., Hao, H. et al. First report of Neoscytalidium dimidiatum inducing canker disease on apple trees in China. J Plant Pathol 104, 1149–1150 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42161-022-01131-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42161-022-01131-0