Fruit rot on tomatoes caused by Talaromyces stipitatus newly reported in China

Abstract

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is an important horticultural crop across the world, but its growth process is susceptible to various phytopathogenic fungi. In February 2022, naturally rotten tomato fruit were observed in greenhouses in Panjin City, Liaoning province, China. Thirty-two morphologically similar fungal strains were isolated from symptomatic tomato fruit. One representative isolate, Guo 1-4, was selected for subsequent experiments and identified as Talaromyces stipitatus through morphological analysis and multigene phylogenetic analysis of internal transcribed spacer region of ribosomal DNA (ITS), and RNA polymerase II second largest subunit (rpb2), and β-tubulin (tub2). Pathogenicity tests revealed that the pathogenic fungi caused symptoms similar to those observed on tomato fruit in greenhouses and could also infect tomato leaves, thus confirming Koch's postulates. To our knowledge, this is the first report of T. stipitatus infecting tomato fruit and leaves in China. This research lays the foundation for developing effective disease management measures to reduce tomato yield losses.