First Report of Leaf Blight of Syringa oblata Caused by Botryosphaeria dothidea in China.

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As an important landscaping plant, Syringa oblata is widely planted in northern China with high ornamental, medicinal, and edible value (Men et al. 2023). In September 2023, a new leaf blight disease on S. oblata was observed in Tianjin (39.0916°N, 117.1019°E), China. The onset of foliar symptoms was marked by the appearance of yellow-brown spots that originated from the tip and margin, subsequently evolving into irregularly shaped brown lesions. Finally, the lesions are distributed throughout the leaf surface, causing the leaf to wilt and seriously affecting photosynthesis. To identify the pathogen responsible for leaf blight of S. oblata, symptomatic leaves were collected and cut into square leaf blocks with a size of 0.3 cm², which were sterilized by immersion in 75% ethanol for 60 s and 5% NaClO for 30 s, and rinsed three times with sterile distilled water. The sterilized leaf pieces were then placed on potato dextrose agar (PDA) and incubated at 25 °C for 3-5 days. The peripheral hyphae of the fungal colony which developed from the infected tissues were isolated onto PDA plates. The fungal cultures on PDA plates were used for morphological observation and identification of the fungus. Colonies of B. dothidea on PDA medium were initially off-white, batting-shaped and gradually grayish-black. Aerial hyphae were well developed and could reach the tip of the petri dish. To induce sporulation, the hyphae were picked into medium containing sterilized pine needles. Conidia were found on pine needles after 30 d of incubation at 25°C. Conidia were hyaline, unicellular, oblong to spindle-shaped, and 17.5-23.0 µm in size × 6.1-8.5 µm(n=50). Based on these characteristics, the isolates were preliminarily identified as B. dothidea (Phillips et al. 2005). To provide additional evidence for the classification of the isolate, genomic DNA was extracted from the isolates of B. dothidea and used for Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). The internal transcribed spacer (ITS), glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GPDH), and actin (ACT) were amplified with the primer pairs ITS1/ITS4, GDP1/GDP2, and ACT-512F/ACT-783R, respectively (Jiang et al. 2022). A BLAST search of sequences showed the ITS, GPDH, and ACT sequences had >99% identity with homologous sequences from B. dothidea isolates Bb158-4(HQ392696.1), PPO-46523(MG761771.1), and CMW7779 (AY972117.1), respectively. Phylogenetic analysis determined that the isolate was in the same clade position as B. dothidea, which confirmed the above morphological identification. To assess pathogenicity, the fungal cakes (6 mm diameter) were obtained from the edge of a fresh colony (cultured on a PDA plate for 7 days) using a sterile perforator. Ten surface-sterilized leaves of healthy S. oblata with uniform growth condition were collected and inoculated with fungal cakes after wounding. Ten leaves were inoculated with sterile PDA medium blocks as control. The test was repeated three times. All leaves were kept at 25°C and sterile H2O was sprayed daily to keep leaves surface moist. After five days, all vaccination sites showed lesions similar to those of the S. oblata diseased leaves in the field, while the controls were asymptomatic. B. dothidea was reisolated from symptomatic tissues, thus fulfilling Koch's postulates. B. dothidea is a member of Botryosphaeriaceae. Currently, B. dothidea infection of Syringa spp. plants has not been reported. However, in China, it has been reported to cause stem rot on Forsythia suspense (He et al. 2022) and leaf dieback on sweet osmanthus (Ling et al. 2010), demonstrating that B. dothidea can infect Oleaceae species. This study found that S. oblata could be infected by B. dothidea. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of B. dothidea causing leaf blight on S. oblata in China. Identifying the pathogen of S. oblata leaf blight is essential for the prevention and management of disease associated with S. oblata.