FIRST REPORT OF PHOMOPSIS DIOSPYRI CAUSING SHOOT BLIGHTS ON PERSIMMON TREES IN GREECE

• Published in: Journal of plant pathology 2009-07, Vol.91 (2), p.500-500
• Main Authors: Thomidis, T., Navrozidis, E.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Diospyros; Disease Note; Lotus; Persimmons; Phomopsis; Solanum tuberosum
• ISSN: 1125-4653; 2239-7264

In July and through summer 2006, persimmon trees (Diospyros lotus) showing wilted and blighted shoots were observed in commercial orchards of the Imathia prefecture (northern Greece). Close examination of the cortical tissues of affected shoots revealed the presence of dark-coloured cankers. Isolations from the lower margins of these cankers made by plating tissue fragments ca. 3 mm in size on acidified potato dextrose agar, yielded a fungus which, based on morphological and sporulation characteristics, was identified as Phomopsis diospyri (Sacc.) Trav. & Spessa. Fungal colonies in culture had a white-coloured mycelium on whose surface dark-pigmented, flask-shaped pycnidia developed, oozing one-celled, ovoid to fusoid curved conidia as milky or yellowish mucilaginous drops. Koch's postulates were fulfilled by inoculating with agar plugs from fungal colonies 20 segments (6 cm in length and 1.5-2 cm in diameter) of 1-year-old woody persimmon shoots as described by Jeffers et al. (1981). Ten segments, used as controls, were wounded and inoculated with an agar disk without fungal mycelium. Shoot segments inoculated with the fungus developed cankers similar to those observed in the field, from which the same pathogen as that used for inoculations was recovered. Controls remained symptomless. P. diospyri has been reported as the causal agent of shoot cankers and fruit rots of persimmon in other countries (Horst, 2008). However, to our knowledge, this is the first report from Greece documenting attacks of P. diospyri to persimmon.