Abstract
BackgroundSyzygium samarangense (Wax apple) is an important tropical fruit tree with high economic and nutrient value and is widely planted in the tropics or subtropics of Asia. Post-harvest water-soaked brown lesions were observed on mature fruits of ornamental wax apples in Chiang Rai Province, Thailand. A fungus with morphological characters, similar to Lasiodiplodia, was consistently isolated from symptomatic fruits. Phylogenetic analyses, based on ITS, LSU, TEF1-a and tub2, revealed that our isolates were closely related to, but phylogenetically distinct from, Lasiodiplodia rubropurpurea.New informationMorphological comparisons indicated that pycnidia and conidiogenous cells of our strains were significantly larger than L. rubropurpurea. Comparisons of base-pair differences in the four loci confirmed that the species from wax apple was distinct from L. rubropurpurea and a new species, L. syzygii sp. nov., is introduced to accommodate it. Pathogenicity tests confirmed the newly-introduced species as the pathogen of this post-harvest water-soaked brown lesion disease on wax apples.
Highlights
Wax apple [Syzygium samarangense (Blume) Merrill and Perry] belongs to the Myrtaceae and was naturalised in the Philippines thousands of years ago (Lim 2012, Shen et al 2012)
The present study reports a new post-harvest water-soaked brown lesion disease on wax apples caused by Lasiodiplodia sp. in Chiang Rai,Thailand
This study revealed a new species of Lasiodiplodia, L. syzygi from rotting fruits of Syzygium samarangense
Summary
Syzygium samarangense (Wax apple) is an important tropical fruit tree with high economic and nutrient value and is widely planted in the tropics or subtropics of Asia. Post-harvest water-soaked brown lesions were observed on mature fruits of ornamental wax apples in Chiang Rai Province, Thailand. A fungus with morphological characters, similar to Lasiodiplodia, was consistently isolated from symptomatic fruits. Phylogenetic analyses, based on ITS, LSU, TEF1-a and tub, revealed that our isolates were closely related to, but phylogenetically distinct from, Lasiodiplodia rubropurpurea. Morphological comparisons indicated that pycnidia and conidiogenous cells of our strains were significantly larger than L. rubropurpurea. Comparisons of base-pair differences in the four loci confirmed that the species from wax apple was distinct from L. rubropurpurea and a new species, L. syzygii sp. Pathogenicity tests confirmed the newly-introduced species as the pathogen of this post-harvest water-soaked brown lesion disease on wax apples
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