Colletotrichum shisoi sp. nov., an anthracnose pathogen of Perilla frutescens in Japan: molecular phylogenetic, morphological and genomic evidence

Abstract

Species of the fungal genus Colletotrichum are among the most devastating pathogens of agricultural crops in the world. Based on DNA sequence data (ITS, GAPDH, CHS-1, ACT, TUB2) and morphology, we revealed Colletotrichum isolates infecting the oil crop Perilla frutescens, commonly known as shiso, to represent a previously unknown species of the C. destructivum species complex and described it as C. shisoi. We found that C. shisoi appears to be able to adopt a hemibiotrophic lifestyle, characterised by the formation of biotrophic hyphae followed by severe necrotic lesions on P. frutescens, but is less virulent on Arabidopsis, compared to its close relative C. higginsianum which also belongs to the C. destructivum species complex. The genome of C. shisoi was sequenced, annotated and its predicted proteome compared with four other Colletotrichum species. The predicted proteomes of C. shisoi and C. higginsianum, share many candidate effectors, which are small, secreted proteins that may contribute to infection. Interestingly, C. destructivum species complex-specific secreted proteins showed evidence of increased diversifying selection which may be related to their host specificities.

A nuclear‐targeted effector of Rhizophagus irregularis interferes with histone 2B mono‐ubiquitination to promote arbuscular mycorrhization

“…The occurrence of a RiNLE1‐type effector in the water mould parasitic fungus Rozella allomycis (Fig. S2; Table S3), which intracellularly colonises Allomyces species, suggests that NLE1‐type effectors may even reflect a broader fungal strategy to colonise other hosts (James et al ., 2013; Gan et al ., 2019).…”

Colletotrichum neorubicola sp. nov., a new leaf anthracnose pathogen of raspberry from northeast China

“…Additionally, they introduced eight newly described species to this complex, namely C. americae-borealis, C. antirrhinicola, C. bryoniicola, C. lentis, C. ocimi, C. pisicola, C. utrechtense and C. vignae. Moreover, C. atractylodicola on Atractylodes chinensis in China and C. shisoi on Perilla frutescens in Japan were later added to the C. destructivum complex (Xu et al 2018, Gan et al 2019. In this study, a new species, C. neorubicola, was introduced to the C. destructivum complex.…”

“…The ITS, GAPDH, ACT, CHS-1 and TUB2 sequences of 35 strains of the Colletotrichum destructivum complex included in Damm et al (2014), Gan et al 2019, O'Connell et al (2012 and Xu et al 2018 and of three Colletotrichum strains examined here were used for phylogenetic analysis (Table 1). These sequences were aligned by MUSCLE, and the alignments were manually adjusted.…”

New scientific discoveries: Plants and fungi

“…Other new pathogenic fungi included Colletotrichum shisoi , an anthracnose pathogen of perilla ( Perilla frutescens ), a source of seed oil in China, Japan, India, Thailand, and Korea (Gan et al, 2019); Ceratocystis destructans, a canker‐causing pathogen of almond (Holland et al, 2019), and Dwiroopa punicae , which causes leaf spotting and fruit rot in pomegranate ( Punica granatum ) (Xavier, 2019). In this latter study, the new family Dwiroopaceae was also proposed to accommodate this genus.…”