WOOD-ROTTING FUNGI ASSOCIATED WITH CITRUS ORCHARDS IN SOUTHERN ITALY

The distribution of wood-rotting fungi infecting citrus trees was investigated in Southern Italy. Isolations were carried out on PDA from decaying wood of clementine trees, showing leaf dropping, chlorosis and twig dieback and from apparently healthy sweet orange trees. Cross-sections of clementine...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of plant pathology 2009-12, Vol.91 (4), p.S4.85-S4.85
Main Authors: Roccotelli, A, Schena, L, Ligorio, A M, Cacciola, SO, Ippolito, A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Citrus
Citrus sinensis
Olea
Phellinus
Vitaceae
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The distribution of wood-rotting fungi infecting citrus trees was investigated in Southern Italy. Isolations were carried out on PDA from decaying wood of clementine trees, showing leaf dropping, chlorosis and twig dieback and from apparently healthy sweet orange trees. Cross-sections of clementine trunks and branches revealed symptoms resembling those of esca disease of grapevines consisting of a light-coloured rot surrounded by brown and hard necrotic wood. Dark-coloured rots were observed in orange trees. Fungal isolates were grouped according to their morphology and identified by the analysis of the internal transcribed spacer regions of rDNA. A single fungal species was recovered from each sample. Fomitiporia mediterranea, the most common species in clementine trees, was recovered occasionally from 15- to 20-year-old trees, but was common in older trees. It was isolated also from the wood of both 'Tarocco' orange and declining olive trees grown as windbreaks in orange groves. Two different ITS genotypes closely related to Phellinus spp. were also associated with "white rot" symptoms and occasionally isolated from 'Fedele' clementine. On 'Valencia late' sweet orange another fungus, still under investigation, was frequently associated with "brown rot" symptoms.
ISSN:1125-4653