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Colonisation and histological changes in muskmelon and autumn squash tissues infected by Acremonium cucurbitacearum or Monosporascus cannonballus

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Abstract

Muskmelon (Cucumis melo cv. Temprano Rochet) and autumn squash (Cucurbita maxima) seedlings were inoculated either with Acremonium cucurbitacearum or Monosporascus cannonballus, two of the soil-borne fungi implicated in ‘melon collapse’. Inoculation was achieved in two different ways: by growing the plants in pots containing infested soil to study the histological changes produced in the infected tissues using light microscopy and by growing seedlings in Petri dishes together with fungal colonies in order to observe the colonisation of the plant tissues using scanning electron microscopy. Both muskmelon and autumn squash roots infected with A. cucurbitacearum showed a suberised layer in the epidermis and the outermost layers of the parenchymatic cortex, but these symptoms developed earlier in the muskmelon plants. Muskmelon plants infected by this fungus also presented hypertrophy and hyperplasia, which led to a progressive separation of the vascular bundles in the lower stems of the affected plants. This response was not observed in autumn squash during the study. On the other hand, few histological changes were observed in tissues infected with M. cannonballus and only a slight increase in the size of cortical intercellular spaces was noted in the lower stems of muskmelon plants, and infected autumn squash tissues remained free of these symptoms throughout the study. The scanning electron microscope observations revealed that both fungi were able to colonise the tissues of the two host plants which were studied. A. cucurbitacearum colonised the epidermis and cortex of both muskmelon and autumn squash. The hyphae grew both inter- and intracellularly, and the density of the colonisation decreased within the endodermis. The same colonisation of host plants was observed as a result of M. cannonballus infection. The xylem vessel lumina of both muskmelon and autumn squash showed hyphae and tylose formation as a result of both fungal infections. However, non-fungal structures were detected in the hypocotyl vascular tissues. The present study demonstrates that both fungi are capable of infecting the tissues of a species which is resistant (autumn squash) and a species which is susceptible (muskmelon) to melon collapse.

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by grant AGL2000-1809-C03-01 from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology. We would like to thank Dr. J. García-Jiménez, Dr. J. Armengol and Dr. R. Beltrán for their expert guidance on the pathological aspects of this research and Dr. J.L. Guardiola for his critical review of the manuscript. The authors also wish to thank the U.P.V Electron Microscopy Service for providing technical assistance with the S.E.M. observations. We would like to thank the R&D&I Linguistic Assistance Office, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (Spain) for granting financial support for the linguistic revision of this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto Agroforestal Mediterráneo (IAM), Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (UPV), Camino de Vera s/n., 46022, Valencia, Spain

    Ana Alfaro-Fernández

  2. Departamento de Biología Vegetal, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (UPV), Camino de Vera s/n,, 46022, Valencia, Spain

    Amparo García-Luis

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  1. Ana Alfaro-Fernández
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  2. Amparo García-Luis
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Correspondence to Ana Alfaro-Fernández.

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Alfaro-Fernández, A., García-Luis, A. Colonisation and histological changes in muskmelon and autumn squash tissues infected by Acremonium cucurbitacearum or Monosporascus cannonballus . Eur J Plant Pathol 125, 73–85 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10658-009-9460-0

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