Soto-Alvear, S (Soto-Alvear, Sylvana)[ 1,2 ] ; Lolas, M (Lolas, Mauricio)[ 2 ] . Univ Talca, Fac Ciencias Agr, Talca, Chile.Soto-Alvear, S., Lolas, M., Rosales, I. M., Chavez, E. R., and Latorre, B. A. 2013. Characterization of the bull's eye rot of apple in Chile. Plant Dis. 97:485-490. Apple fruit in Chile are primarily produced for export to Asia, Europe, and the United States, which typically requires 15 to 40 days of maritime transportation. Therefore, Chilean apple production must fulfill the sanitization requirements imposed by the receiving countries. Under these circumstances, it was important to clarify the etiology of bull's eye rot that can severely affect 'Cripps Pink' apple and other late-harvest cultivars in Chile. Based on morphological characteristics and the partial sequence analysis of the internal transcribed spacer sequences and beta-tubulin genes, Neofabraea alba was identified as the causal agent of the bull's eye rot of Chilean apple. These results were further corroborated using species-specific primers. The incidence of bull's eye rot varied considerably; for instance, in 2009, 0.0 to 58.7% in 38 Cripps Pink orchards surveyed in the relatively arid and humid apple-growing areas of Chile, respectively. There was no evidence for the presence of N. malicorticis or N. perennans, which are commonly identified as causal agents of bull's eye rot in other apple-producing countries. Altogether, these data suggest that N. alba might represent the predominant and possibly the only cause of bull's-eye rot of Chilean apple

Root hairs are important for nutrient and water uptake and are also critically involved the interaction with soil inhabiting microbiota. Root hairs are tubular-shaped outgrowths that emerge from trichoblasts. This polarized elongation is maintained and regulated by a robust mechanism involving the endomembrane secretory and endocytic system. Members of the syntaxin family of SNAREs (soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor attachment protein receptor) in plants (SYP), have been implicated in regulation of the fusion of vesicles with the target membranes in both exocytic and endocytic pathways. One member of this family, SYP123, is expressed specifically in the root hairs and accumulated in the growing tip region. This study shows evidence of the SYP123 role in polarized trafficking using knockout insertional mutant plants. We were able to observe defects in the deposition of cell wall proline rich protein PRP3 and cell wall polysaccharides. In a complementary strategy, similar results were obtained using a plant expressing a dominant negative soluble version of SYP123 (SP2 fragment) lacking the transmembrane domain. The evidence presented indicates that SYP123 is also regulating PRP3 protein distribution by recycling by endocytosis. We also present evidence that indicates that SYP123 is necessary for the response of roots to plant growth promoting rhizobacterium (PGPR) in order to trigger trigger induced systemic response (ISR). Plants with a defective SYP123 function were unable to mount a systemic acquired resistance in response to bacterial pathogen infection and ISR upon interaction with rhizobacteria. These results indicated that SYP123 was involved in the polarized localization of protein and polysaccharides in growing root hairs and that this activity also contributed to the establishment of effective plant defense responses. Root hairs represent very plastic structures were many biotic and abiotic factors can affect the number, anatomy and physiology of root hairs. Here, we presented evidence that indicates that interactions with soil PGPR could be closely regulated by signaling involving secretory and/or endocytic trafficking at the root hair tip as a quick way to response to changing environmental conditions.

The English walnut (Juglans regia L.) is the second most important fruit crop of importance in Chile, with 43,700 hectares mainly in the Central Valley (www.odepa.cl, 2022). For several seasons symptoms of a branch dieback have been observed in walnut orchards with 3 to 50% of trees incidence levels. During the 2020 winter season (July) a total of 150 symptomatic spurs of 15 trees were sampled from an 8-year-old walnut cv. Chandler orchard located in Buin (33°42' S, 70° 42' W). The collected spurs showed external and internal brown necroses, starting from the tip with well-defined margins. The symptomatic tissue was cut in to small pieces (5 x 4 x 2 mm), surface disinfected by dipping in a 10% solution made from a commercial bleach solution (4,9% NaOHCl), rinsed twice in sterile water and plated on APDA (PDA Difco laboratories acidified with lactic acid (2,5 ml of 25% (vol/vol) per liter of medium). After five days at 20 °C in darkness, fast-growing, white-grey turning to black colonies were obtained, tentatively classified as a member of the Botryosphaeraceae family and two single-spore isolates (SS1, SS2) were selected for identification. Colony mycelia were first white and turned to light grey, dark grey or black, with tufts of mouse gray aerial mycelia. The pycnidia and conidia production was induced by inoculating autoclaved pine needles placed on APDA an incubation for 25 to 30 days at 20 °C in darkness. Black pycnidia solitary and globose were obtained producing hyaline, aseptate, fusiform to obovoid conidia with truncated ends with dimensions of (22.6-) 19.1 ± 1.4 (-13.3) x (6.7-) 5.5 ± 0.5 (-3.7) µm and 3.5 length/width ratio (n=100). Both isolates were identified using dichotomous keys confirming the description of Crous et al, 2006 as Neofusicoccum australe. The identification was molecularly confirmed by amplifying the nuclear ribosomal gene 5,8S (ITS1-5.8S-ITS2) using the ITS1/ITS4 primers, a partial region of β-tubulin gene (Bt2a/Bt2b), and the translation elongation factor 1-α gene (TEF1) with TEF1-728F/TEF1-986R primers. The BLASTn search revealed 100% of identity for ITS and TEF according to sequences of N. australe reference strains MT587467.1 and MK759852.1, respectively; and over 99% for β-tubulin compared to N. australe strain KX464929.1. The DNA sequences were submitted to the GenBank (ITS, OP142414, OP142416; BT, OP209981, OP209978; and TEF OP209979, OP209980) for SS1 and SS2 isolates, respectively, and deposited in the fungal collection of CChRGM - INIA, Chillán, Chile (RGM 3409 and 3410). Pathogenicity of both isolates was tested in 8-year-old asymtomatic English walnut cv. Chandler in the field during 2020 spring season, by cutting transversally 15 twigs of different tress and inoculating with a 5 day-old PDA plug. An equal number of wounded twigs were inoculated with a sterile PDA plug and served as control. After six months, all inoculated twigs developed the same necrotic lesions observed in field of 2.0 to 10.1 cm (SS1) and 1.9 to 10.8 cm (SS2) in length while control twigs showed only a scar without any dieback tissues. The inoculated pathogens of N. australe were recovered from the diseased tissues, thus fulfilling Koch’s postulates. A similar dieback of walnut was reported in Chile, which caused Diplodia mutila (Díaz et al, 2018), and N. parvum (Luna et al, 2022) while N. australe has been reported in other hosts (Auger et al, 2013, Besoain et al, 2013). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of N. australe associated with walnut branch dieback in Chile.