Colletotrichum is the second most common pathogen that causes loquat fruit rot in Nagasaki prefecture, Japan. To clarify the anthracnose disease cycle in loquat trees, pathogens were isolated from collected asymptomatic flowers and rotten fruits. The isolates were identified at the species level based on morphological and molecular phylogenetic analyses. Nineteen isolates were obtained from 148 collected rotten fruits. The isolates were identified as C. fioriniae (12 isolates), C. nymphaeae (2 isolates), C. gloeosporioides (1 isolate), and four unidentified species. From 900 asymptomatic flowers, C. fioriniae (5 isolates), C. gloeosporioides (1 isolate), C. siamense (2 isolates), an unknown species (11 isolates) belonging to the acutatum species complex, and 2 were unidentified. All isolates exhibited pathogenic reactions to leaves and fruits. These results imply that C. fioriniae and C. gloeosporioides infect flowers and cause loquat fruit rot after maturation. However, those in other species remain unclear. We were unable to prove the reason for the differences in the composition of species in fruits and flowers and their proportions in this study. An isolate obtained from asymptomatic flowers that also cause anthracnose disease in loquat was identified as a novel species of Colletotrichum, and was named C. nagasakiense sp. nov.
The pathogen causing Fusarium wilt in banana is reported to be Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense (FOC). In 2019, wilt symptoms in banana plants (cultivar: Cavendish) in the Philippines were detected, i.e., the yellowing of the leaves and discoloration of the pseudostem and vascular tissue. The fungus isolated from the vascular tissue was found to be pathogenic to Cavendish bananas and was identified as a new species, F. mindanaoense, belonging to the F. fujikuroi species complex (FFSC); species classification was assessed using molecular phylogenetic analyses based on the tef1, tub2, cmdA, rpb1, and rpb2 genes and morphological analyses. A reciprocal blast search using genomic data revealed that this fungus exclusively included the Secreted in Xylem 6 (SIX6) gene among the SIX homologs related to pathogenicity; it exhibited a highly conserved amino acid sequence compared with that of species in the FFSC, but not with that of FOC. This was the first report of Fusarium wilt in Cavendish bananas caused by a species of the genus Fusarium other than those in the F. oxysporum species complex.
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