Botryosphaeriaceae associated with Terminalia catappa in Cameroon, South Africa and Madagascar

Abstract

Species in the Botryosphaeriaceae represent some of the most important fungal pathogens of woody plants. Although these fungi have been relatively well studied on economically important crops, hardly anything is known regarding their taxonomy or ecology on native or non-commercial tree species. The aim of this study was to compare the diversity and distribution of the Botryosphaeriaceae on Terminalia catappa, a tropical tree of Asian origin planted as an ornamental in Cameroon, Madagascar and South Africa. A total of 83 trees were sampled, yielding 79 Botryosphaeriaceae isolates. Isolates were initially grouped based on morphology of cultures and conidia. Representatives of the different morphological groups were then further characterised using sequence data for the ITS, tef 1-alpha, rpb2, BOTF15 and beta-tubulin gene regions. Five species of the Botryosphaeriaceae were identified, including Neofusicoccum parvum, N. batangarum sp. nov., Lasiodiplodia pseudotheobromae, L. theobromae and L. mahajangana sp. nov. Lasiodiplodia pseudotheobromae and L. theobromae, were the most commonly isolated species (62%), and were found at all the sites. Neofusicoccum parvum and N. batangarum were found in South Africa and Cameroon, respectively, whereas L. mahajangana was found only in Madagascar. Greenhouse inoculation trials performed on young T. catappa trees showed variation among isolates tested, with L. pseudotheobromae being the most pathogenic. The Botryosphaeriaceae infecting T. catappa appear to be dominated by generalist species that also occur on various other hosts in tropical and sub-tropical climates.

Botryosphaeriaceae species overlap on four unrelated, native South African hosts

“…Also, L. theobromae has been identified from V. vinifera, S. cordatum, T. catappa and Pt. angolensis in South Africa (Begoude et al 2010;Mehl et al 2011;Pavlic et al 2007;Van Niekerk et al 2004). Given that sampling was relatively intensive at this single location, the data suggest that the occurrence of species in this study might reflect factors influencing distribution other than host specificity, such as environmental factors, and sampling effect.…”

“…and Heteropyxis natalensis (Pavlic et al 2007;Slippers et al 2013;Smith et al 2001). Likewise, N. parvum has been found on S. cordatum, Eucalyptus spp., and T. catappa (Begoude et al 2010;Pavlic et al 2007;Slippers et al 2004). Also, L. theobromae has been identified from V. vinifera, S. cordatum, T. catappa and Pt.…”

“…(Damm et al 2007a;Denman et al 2003;Pavlic et al 2007Pavlic et al , 2009aPillay et al 2013;Smith et al 1996a;Van Niekerk et al 2004). Some Botryosphaeriaceae can also infect a variety of native hosts and examples include Dothiorella dulcispinae Jami, Gryzenh., Slippers catappa and S. cordatum (Begoude et al 2010;Mehl et al 2011;Pillay et al 2013), and N.…”

“…Hosts include native trees such as Terminalia catappa (Myrtales: Combretaceae) (Begoude et al 2010), Pterocarpus angolensis (Fabales: Fabaceae) (Mehl et al 2011), Syzygium cordatum (Myrtales: Myrtaceae) (Pavlic et al 2007), Acacia melifera (Fabales: Fabaceae) , A. karroo (Jami et al 2012), and woody species of Leucadendron, Leucospermum and Protea (Proteales: Proteaceae) (Denman et al 2003). Non-native hosts of the Botryosphaeriaceae in South Africa include Pinus Rosaceae), and Vitis vinifera (Vitales: Vitaceae) (Damm et al 2007a;Smith et al 1996a;Van Niekerk et al 2004).…”

Pathogenic Botryosphaeriaceae associated with Mangifera indica in the Kimberley Region of Western Australia

“…Lasiodiplodia sp. 1 and 2 fall within the L. theobromae species complex, and represent additional cryptic species to the eight described Lasiodiplodia species within the complex (Damm et al 2007;Alves et al 2008;Abdollahzadeh et al 2010;Begoude et al 2010).…”