First Report of Black Spot Caused by Alternaria alternata on Grafted Cactus

Abstract

A stem spot disease was observed on Gymnocalycium mihanovichii (Korean name: Bimoran), a scion of graftcactus, in major growing areas of Goyang and Eumseong, Korea during 2008 and 2009. Typical symptoms were initial blackish brown lesions produced mainly on areoles and scars of injured stem tissues, gradually becoming large black spots. A causal organism isolate CD2-7A isolated from the infected stems was identified as Alternaria alternata based on its morphological characteristics and confirmed by the DNA sequencing analysis of ITS, glyceraldehydes-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (gpd), and allergen Alt a1 (Alt a 1) genes. Artificial inoculation of the fungal isolate CD2-7A produced the same rot symptoms on the cactus stems, from which the same fungus was isolated and identified. This is the first report of the black spot caused by A. alternata in the grafted cactus.

Alternaria alternata (Black Rot, Black Spot)

“…From the above, it can be clearly seen that A. alternata is a fungus that can infect many fruits, however, although it is not within the scope of this chapter, this fungus has been reported to infect other parts of plants like seeds (Szopinska et al, 2012), leaves (Harteveld et al, 2013), stems (Choi et al, 2010) and flowers (Espinoza-Verduzco et al, 2012) reducing the agricultural production either directly by infecting the fruit or indirectly by impairing the physiology of plant photosynthesis (Lagopodi and Thanassoulopoulos, 1998;Qiang et al, 2010).…”

Morphogenetic Alterations of Alternaria alternata Exposed to Dicarboximide Fungicide, Iprodione

“…A. alternata CD2-7A isolated from the brown spot of a grafted cactus, Gymnocalycium mihanovichii ( Choi et al, 2010 ) was used in the present study. The fungicide used was iprodione (50% wettable powder) [3-(3,5-dichlorophenyl)-A′-isopropyl-2,4-dioxoimidazolidine-l-carboximide] (Rovral ® ; Nonghyup Chemical, Seongnam, Korea).…”

Development of a Multiplex PCR Method to Detect Fungal Pathogens for Quarantine on Exported Cacti

“…The grafted-cacti are cultivated under greenhouse conditions at warm temperatures and high humidity during the entire growing season. Therefore cacti frequently were infected by a variety of fungal diseases ( Chang et al, 1998 ; Choi et al, 2010 ; Hyun et al, 1998 ; Kim et al, 2000 ; Kim et al, 2007 ). Cactus diseases are a major factor in greenhouse grafted-cacti, particularly stem rot caused by F. oxysporum and B. cactivora (= Helminthosporium cactovorum Petr., (1931) and = Drechslera cactivora ) (Petr.)…”