Abstract
Symptoms of chlorotic leaf distortion (CLD) develop on vigorously growing sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas) plants during sunny weather. They include chlorosis and twisting of young, expanding leaves and the appearance of white material on the adaxial leaf surfaces. The white material consisted of extramatrical fungal mycelia and Fusarium macroconidia. Fusarium lateritium Nees was isolated from surface-sterilized vine segments, leaf primordia, apical meristems, flower parts and true seeds of plants with CLD. Meristem-tip-culture-derived plants (mericlones) did not develop symptoms when grown for extended periods under disease-conducive conditions in the greenhouse. The fungus was not isolated from mericlones or other plants which had remained symptomless in the greenhouse but was isolated from lower nodes of symptomless plants from growers' fields. Symptoms developed on 84% of 185 mericlones of nine sweetpotato genotypes inoculated with F. lateritium isolated from CLD-affected plants. The pathogen was reisolated only from inoculated mericlones.
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