Wax coating and Ag-TiO2 nanoparticles as alternatives to preserve postharvest quality of the purple passion fruit (Passiflora edulis f. edulis)

Postharvest quality of purple passion fruit in packaging alone or combined with fungicide and wax during ripening under ambient conditions

The use of soil conditioners as bovine biofertilizer associated with mineral fertilization affect the physical and physicochemical quality of passion fruit. For fruit growth, post-harvest quality is crucial for production chain development, as it is the characteristic most used by the fresh consumption market for this fruit. In this sense, an experiment was carried out to investigate the effects of doses of bovine biofertilizer in the soil with and without nitrogen fertilization in the cultivation of yellow passion fruit. A randomized block design was adopted, with three replications in a 5×2 factorial scheme, referring to five doses of liquid bovine biofertilizer (B) diluted in water (A): 0% - control (0B + 4A); 25% (1B + 3A); 50% (2B + 2A); 75% (3B + 1A); and 100% (4B + 0A) with and without nitrogen fertilization applied to the soil. Urea was the nitrogen source used in this study. A total of 10 g plant-1 of N was applied monthly at 30 and 60 days after transplanting, and after that age, 20 g plant-1 was applied until the end of harvest. During the final phase of production and ripening, twelve fruits were harvested from each treatment in physiological maturation for physical and physicochemical characterization. The following analyses were performed: longitudinal diameter, transversal diameter, number of seeds per fruit, peel firmness, pulp yield, fruit peel percentage, pulp pH, soluble solids content; titratable acidity and soluble solids content/titratable acidity ratio. Data underwent analysis of variance by the F test means for nitrogen were compared by Tukey's test and means for bovine biofertilizer, by regression. Nitrogen enhances the positive effect of bovine biofertilizer on the postharvest quality of yellow passion fruit. The association of biofertilizer and nitrogen improves fruit quality in comparison to plants without these inputs, except for pulp yield and fruit peel percentage, which suffered isolated effects from the factors. High doses of biofertilizer, above 75 and 100%, reduce soluble solids content and increase titratable acidity. The bovine biofertilizer has promising effects, but it does not replace nitrogen fertilization on the postharvest quality of yellow passion fruit.

The present study aimed to evaluate the production and postharvest quality of yellow passion fruit, cultivated under different levels of irrigation water salinity and exogenous application of hydrogen peroxide. At low concentrations, hydrogen peroxide may favor plant acclimatization when subjected to saline stress conditions due to the activation of defense mechanisms. The experiment was conducted in greenhouse in the municipality of Campina Grande-PB, Brazil, using drainage lysimeters filled with sandy loam Entisol. The experimental design was randomized blocks, with 4×4 factorial arrangement with three replicates, consisting of four levels of irrigation water electrical conductivity—ECw (0.7, 1.4, 2.1 and 2.8 dS m-1) and four concentrations of hydrogen peroxide—H2O2 (0, 20, 40 and 60 μM). The different concentrations of H2O2 were applied by soaking the seeds for a 24-h period before sowing and spraying the leaves on the adaxial and abaxial sides. At the end of the cycle (205 days after transplanting-DAT), passion fruit production was evaluated by determining the number of fruits per plant, mean fruit weight and total fruit weight. Postharvest quality was determined by physical characterization of fruit (equatorial and polar diameters and rind and pulp thicknesses), hydrogen potential in the pulp, titratable acidity and ascorbic acid. Increasing levels of irrigation water salinity negatively affected the production and physical and chemical quality of passion fruits. Number and total weight of fruits per plant were the most compromised variables. There was significant interaction between irrigation water salinity levels and H2O2 concentrations on fruits’ polar diameter, at 205 days after transplanting. Foliar application at estimated concentration of 27.5 and 41.5 μM H2O2 led to the highest values of total titratable acidity and vitamin C, respectively, at 205 DAT. Water salinity above 0.7 dS m-1 resulted in changes in the physico-chemical characteristics of passion fruit. Peroxide concentrations up to 60 μM did not mitigate the deleterious effects of salt stress on passion fruit yield and quality in the first crop cycle.

Chitosan edible coating (Ch; 2%, mass concentration) enriched with 2% of 0.1 mg/L Bidens pilosa (Ch+B), Lippia javanica (Ch+L), Syzygium cordatum (Ch+S), or Ximenia caffra (Ch+X) was applied as a composite edible coating in alleviating shrivel and maintaining the quality of purple passion fruit (Passiflora edulis var. Ester). Treated fruit was dipped for 3 min in the coating solution, and control fruit was dipped in distilled water. The fruit were stored at (8±2) °C and 90%±5% relative humidity (RH) for 32 d. Sampling was done every 8 d plus 3 d ((20±2) °C and (50%±5%) RH) to simulate retail conditions. Efficacy of medicinal plant extracts in the chitosan matrix varied; lower ethylene production (82.42 µL C2H4/(kg·h)) was seen in fruit coated with Ch+S, and the lowest respiration rate (75 mL CO2/(kg·h)) was observed in fruit coated with Ch+B. The control fruit showed the highest ethylene production (84.90 µL C2H4/(kg·h)) and respiration rate (117.98 mL CO2/(kg·h)). Fruit coated with Ch+B had the lowest weight loss (41.67%), higher juice content (60.13%) and BrimA (3.31); while the control fruit had the highest weight loss (88.03%), lowest juice content (21.90%), and BrimA (2.49). Shrivel incidence was lowest (23.70%) on fruit coated with Ch+L and highest (83.30%) on the control fruit. Fruit coated with Ch+X had the lowest electrolyte leakage (71.40%), while the control fruit had the highest (91.97%). Fruit coated with chitosan alone performed better than the control fruit but did not exceed the quality of composite chitosan-coated fruit. Based on the principal component analysis, it can be concluded that passion fruit coated with Ch+B was more effective in alleviating shrivel incidence, better maintained the quality of passion fruit during storage, and shows potential for commercial applications.

Passionfruit (Passiflora edulis, Sims, cultivar “Sweetheart”) were subject to gamma irradiation at levels suitable for phytosanitary purposes (0, 150, 400 and 1000 Gy) then stored at 8 °C and assessed for fruit quality and total ascorbic acid concentration after one and fourteen days. Irradiation at any dose (≤1000 Gy) did not affect passionfruit quality (overall fruit quality, colour, firmness, fruit shrivel, stem condition, weight loss, total soluble solids level (TSS), titratable acidity (TA) level, TSS/TA ratio, juice pH and rot development), nor the total ascorbic acid concentration. The length of time in storage affected some fruit quality parameters and total ascorbic acid concentration, with longer storage periods resulting in lower quality fruit and lower total ascorbic acid concentration, irrespective of irradiation. There was no interaction between irradiation treatment and storage time, indicating that irradiation did not influence the effect of storage on passionfruit quality. The results showed that the application of 150, 400 and 1000 Gy gamma irradiation to “Sweetheart” purple passionfruit did not produce any deleterious effects on fruit quality or total ascorbic acid concentration during cold storage, thus supporting the use of low dose irradiation as a phytosanitary treatment against quarantine pests in purple passionfruit.

Introduction . The production of high quality fruit juice involves several cultural inputs. Among other factors, fruit quality attributes are influenced by the cultivar, the climate, the harvesting time and soil fertility. Particularly, the soil fertility has a significant effect on the nutritional characteristics of the juice. Good practice as regards fertilization consists of applying rates adapted to plant optimum growth, yield and fruit quality. Materials and methods . Effects of four poultry manure rates [(0, 5, 10 and 15) t·ha–1 ] on the juice quality of passion fruits (Passiflora edulis var. flavicarpa ) were evaluated for two cropping years (2005 and 2006). The seedlings of passion fruit vine were field-established in a randomized complete block design, and the manure treatments were replicated four times. Juice quality assessment was performed on fruits picked in December 2005, coinciding with the dry season and low soil moisture recharge, and August 2006, during the wet season and high soil moisture recharge. Results . The results obtained indicated a significant poultry manure effect on all the juice quality parameters studied; the quality of the juice increased gradually as the manure rate increased. Similarly, the season of fruit-picking had a significant effect on the juice quality. As expected, vines that received no manure produced fruits with the poorest juice quality, suggesting unfavorable nutritive conditions within the vines. The concentrations of anti-nutrient factors (tannin, hydrogen cyanide, phytate and calcium oxalate) were low in ripe yellow passion fruits, and insignificant regarding health hazards for consumers of yellow passion fruit. Conclusion . The results obtained showed that the manure rate and the harvest period affected the quality of passion fruit juice. Application of 15 t·ha–1 poultry manure generally gave the best juice quality; similarly, fruits harvested in the first cropping season had better juice quality.

Passion fruit nectar was developed from yellow and purple passion fruit separately and also by blending both yellow and purple fruits, in different combinations of TSS and juice. It was initially subjected to organoleptic evaluation to determine the best combination of TSS and juice content in nectar. Organoleptic evaluation revealed that passion fruit nectar containing 20% juice and 20°Brix was more acceptable in all the three categories (yellow and purple separately, and yellow blended with purple). Total soluble solids, non-enzymatic browning, reducing, non- reducing and total sugars increased while, titratable acidity, vitamin C, total carotenoids, total phenols and total flavanoids decreased during storage. Organoleptic quality of passion fruit nectar declined during storage in all the treatments. The rate of decline was faster in nectar stored under ambient conditions compared to those stored under refrigerated condition. Microbial load in all the samples was within the acceptable limits even after three months of storage.

Passion fruit, renowned for its significant nutritional, medicinal, and economic value, is extensively cultivated in subtropical regions such as China, India, and Vietnam. In the production and processing industry, the quality grading of passion fruit plays a crucial role in the supply chain. However, the current process relies heavily on manual labor, resulting in inefficiency and high costs, which reflects the importance of expanding the application of fruit appearance quality classification mechanisms based on computer vision. Moreover, the existing passion fruit detection algorithms mainly focus on real-time detection and overlook the quality-classification aspect. This paper proposes the ATC-YOLOv5 model based on deep learning for passion fruit detection and quality classification. First, an improved Asymptotic Feature Pyramid Network (APFN) is utilized as the feature-extraction network, which is the network modified in this study by adding weighted feature concat pathways. This optimization enhances the feature flow between different levels and nodes, allowing for the adaptive and asymptotic fusion of richer feature information related to passion fruit quality. Secondly, the Transformer Cross Stage Partial (TRCSP) layer is constructed based on the introduction of the Multi-Head Self-Attention (MHSA) layer in the Cross Stage Partial (CSP) layer, enabling the network to achieve a better performance in modeling long-range dependencies. In addition, the Coordinate Attention (CA) mechanism is introduced to enhance the network’s learning capacity for both local and non-local information, as well as the fine-grained features of passion fruit. Moreover, to validate the performance of the proposed model, a self-made passion fruit dataset is constructed to classify passion fruit into four quality grades. The original YOLOv5 serves as the baseline model. According to the experimental results, the mean average precision (mAP) of ATC-YOLOv5 reaches 95.36%, and the mean detection time (mDT) is 3.2 ms, which improves the mAP by 4.83% and the detection speed by 11.1%, and the number of parameters is reduced by 10.54% compared to the baseline, maintaining the lightweight characteristics while improving the accuracy. These experimental results validate the high detection efficiency of the proposed model for fruit quality classification, contributing to the realization of intelligent agriculture and fruit industries.

The phyto-technical management of crops, such as the conduction system, spatial arrangement of plants and mineral and organic fertilization are pre-harvest agronomic factors that can alter fruit quality. Therefore, this research was developed to evaluate physico-chemical attributes of yellow passion fruit as a function of population arrangement and organomineral fertilization. The experiment was carried in Entisol with free-sand texture under tropical climate with dry summer. The treatments were obtained from the combination of doses of nitrogen (92, 119, 183, 248 and 275 kg ha-1) and soil organic matter (1.3, 1.8, 2.9, 4.0 and 4.5%), through Central Box Compound, plus four additional treatments to study the effect of the number of plants per pit. The evaluations were carried on seven and ten months after the transplanting of the seedlings. A randomized block design with three replications was used. The fruits were harvested at the beginning of the yellowing of the bark and evaluated in the pulp: pH, total titratable acidity (TTA), total soluble solids (TSS), reducing sugars, non-reducing sugars and total sugars, ascorbic acid, TSS/TTA ratio, electrical conductivity and humidity. The harvesting season changed the physico-chemical properties of the passion fruit pulp and interfered with the effects of plant management and fertilization on the quality of passion fruit. For the production of the best quality passion fruit we may cultivate one, two or three plants per pit. With three plants per pit it is recommended to apply 180 kg ha-1 of nitrogen annually and raise the soil organic matter to 4%.

Colombia is the country with the greatest genetic diversity in passion fruit species, some of which are cultivated on an area of approximately 13,673 ha. Each variety must be planted at a suitable altitude under optimal conditions to obtain the best quality. Regarding plant nutrition, potassium has the greatest influence due to the effect of its application on the yield increase, ascorbic acid content and lifecycle to harvest. Adequate water increases the percentage of the marketable quality and amount of fruit juice, and the use of rootstocks does not significantly change the fruit quality. Ensuring a pollination of the flowers in cultivation is decisive for the fruit formation and its juice content. The species differ greatly in their quality, as purple passion fruit (Passiflora edulis f. edulis) is a fruit that develops the highest content of ascorbic acid, while sweet calabash (P. maliformis) forms the maximum amount of phenols and total antioxidant activity. The maturation and ripening of passion fruit is determined by the skin coloration, during which the Brix grades and the maturity index increase and the titratable acidity diminishes. Fruits harvested early in physiological maturity and with unripe peel color can be treated with ethylene in post-harvest, matching fruits that ripened in the plant. More research is needed in the improvement of the quality of the Passifloraceae. Giant granadilla (P. cuadrangularis) and sweet calabash have been studied less than banana passion fruit (P. tripartita var. mollissima), purple passion fruit, yellow passion fruit and sweet granadilla (P. ligularis). The last three species are the most exported fruits in the country.

The factors influencing the final quality of the passion fruit are many, among them the quality of seedlings and the adequate management and farming practices stand out. So, the objective of this work was to evaluate the quality of yellow passion fruit cultivated with seedlings at different ages. For the establishment of the seedlings seeds of the yellow passion fruit cv were utilized. Redondo Amarelo, substrate composed of soil+sand+manure in the ratio of 3:1:1 and plastic bags for up to 8 kg of weight. The experimental design utilized was in randomized blocks (DBC) with five treatments made up of different ages (25, 50, 75, 100 and 125 days, after emergence) with four replications of twelve plants. The variables surveyed were: fresh mass of the fruit (g) longitudinal and transversal diameter of the fruit (mm), fruit shape index, skin thickness (mm), percentage of skin, juice and seed (%), total soluble solids, total titrable acidity and (pH). The use of seedlings aged 100 and 125 days after emergence in yellow passion fruit cultivation showed satisfactory results for all characteristics, deducing feasible to use. The cultivation of yellow passion fruit formed with younger seedlings, compared to other ages obtained a low productivity, lower fruit and less juice yield.

Passion fruit (Passiflora edulis) is widely grown in tropical and subtropical regions, showing high economic and ornamental value. Microorganisms are indicators for the stability and health of the soil ecosystem, which can affect the yield and quality of passion fruit under continuous cropping. High-throughput sequencing and interactive analysis were used to analyse the variation of microbial communities in the noncultivated soil (NCS), cultivated soil (CS), and the rhizosphere soil of purple passion fruit (Passiflora edulis f. edulis ×Passiflora edulis f. flavicarpa, RP) and yellow passion fruit (Passiflora edulis f. flavicarpa, RY). An average of 98,001 high-quality fungal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequences, mainly from Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, Mortierellomycota, Mucoromycota and Glomeromycota, as well as an average of 71,299 high-quality bacterial 16S rRNA sequences, mainly from Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Acidobacteria, Firmicutes and Chloroflexi, were obtained per sample. It was found that the continuous cropping of passion fruit increased the richness but reduced the diversity of soil fungi, while it dramatically increased the richness and diversity of soil bacteria. In addition, during the continuous cropping, grafting different scions in the same rootstock contributed to the aggregation of differential rhizosphere microbial communities. Among fungal genera, Trichoderma showed higher abundance in RY than in RP and CS, while the opposite was observed in the pathogen Fusarium. Moreover, the co-occurrence network and potential function analyses also showed that the appearance of Trichoderma was related to Fusarium and its contribution to plant metabolism was significantly greater in RY than in RP and CS. In conclusion, the rhizosphere of yellow passion fruit may be beneficial for the enrichment of disease-resistant microbes, such as Trichoderma, which may be an important factor inducing stronger resistance to stem rot. It will help to form a potential strategy for overcoming the pathogen-mediated obstacles in passion fruit and improve its yield and quality.

The genus Passiflora, commonly known as passion fruit, originated in South America, is an economically important horticulture crop and widely distributed in the tropics and subtropics. Yellow passion fruit (Passiflora edulis f. flavicarpa) and purple passion fruit (Passiflora edulis f. edulis) are the two most planted species (Santos-Jiménez et al., 2022), which have been largely cultivated in southern China. The average annual production reaches 600,000 tons, of which yellow fruit accounts for more than 70% (Zhou et al., 2022). In 2022 to 2023, a disease caused flower rot severely in passion fruit plantations. The incidence rate was generally 10% in purple passion fruit, with an incidence up to 60% in yellow passion fruit 'Qinmi No. 9'. Flower rot occurs mainly in the rainy season, especially during periods of prolonged rain. Infected flowers had black patches that were water-soaked on the interior of the flower bud. The patches covered the entire flower bud, and fluffy mycelium and sporangia developed, which caused the flower bud rotten and abscised easily. Five symptomatic flowers from Wuhua, Guangdong (23°23'N, 115°18'E) and 8 symptomatic flowers from Shangsi, Guangxi (21°15'N, 107°98'E) of 'Qinmi No. 9' were collected during flowering period in 2022 and 2023. Diseased flower pieces were surface-sterilized with 70% ethanol for 2 to 3 min, rinsed with sterile distilled water 3 times, and placed on PDA medium at 25℃ in darkness. Four and 6 fungal isolates with similar morphology were isolated from the infected samples of Wuhua and Shangsi, respectively. Two isolates, PRFJ01 from Wuhua and PRGX02 from Shangsi, were randomly selected for further study. Purified fungal colonies at the age of 3 days accompany with diffuse cottony mycelia, turned white to gray later. The mycelia were hyaline and aseptate. Sporangiophores with 0.56 (0.22~1.10) mm in length and 6.1 (3.18~10.87) μm in width (n=100) were erect, light brown, and had rhizoids and stolons at their bases. Sporangia with 48.0 (23.45~92.85) μm in diameter (n=100) were dark-colored, near spherical and having dark ovoid sporangiospores with 3.56 (2.34~6.39) μm × 2.82 (1.73~4.70) μm (n=100). The morphology of the fungus were identical to Rhizopus stolonifer (Ehrenb.) Vuill (Haque et al. 2023). The two isolates were molecularly identified using genomic regions of 28S large ribosomal subunit (LSU) with NL1 and LR3 primers (Cruz-Lachica et al., 2018). The phylogenetic trees revealed the sequences of PRFJ01 (OR801560.1) and PRGX02 (OR801561.1) were 100% and 99% identical to R. stolonifer (MK705761.1 and KC412868.1), respectively. Pathogenicity tests were conducted on healthy flowers and leaves of 5-month-old grafted 'Qinmi No. 9' plants. Mycelial plugs with 5-mm diameter were placed on the flowers and leaves. Three plants were performed for each of the isolates, and the test was repeated twice. The inoculated plants were moisturized with plastic bags. Healthy flowers and leaves inoculated with sterile PDA plugs were used as control. Typical symptoms were observed on inoculated plants after 2 days. The dark grey mycelia and sporangia covered the entire flower after 4 days inoculation. The flower bud became putrid and the flower stalk split off. Lesions on leaves expanded accompany with numerous aerial mycelium. However, the controls were symptomless. R. stolonifer was reisolated from inoculated tissues. Previously, flower rot on passion fruit caused by R. stolonifer has only been recorded in Brazil (Ploetz, 2003). To our knowledge, this is the first report of R. stolonifer causing flower rot on passion fruit in China.

Passion fruit (Passiflora edulis Sims), which is native to South America, is an important fruit crop in tropical and subtropical countries. Passion fruit growing areas have increased rapidly in southern China. In 2018 to 2019, circular spots on passion fruit were observed in Shangsi, Guangxi, China (21°15'N, 107°98'E). The disease occurred from June to April of the following year. The disease incidence was generally between 10% to 30%, but could reach up to 50% in purple passion fruit 'Tainong No.1'. The initial lesions on the fruits were small, with a brown center and a greasy margin, and then became sunken and lighter brown with a diameter of about 1 cm in later stages. The spots on the leaves were often surrounded by a yellow halo and turned into larger lesions after coalescence.. Five typical symptomatic fruit and leaves were collected from Shangsi county for the presumed pathogen isolation. Section of the samples were surface sterilized to isolate the fungus on potato dextrose agar (PDA) at 28°C. Five fungal isolates with similar morphology on PDA were obtained by single spore isolation. Colonies at the age of 7 days accompany with flourishing aerial hyphae, showed surface color varying from white to grey. Conidia were ovate or elliptic, light brown to brown, with 2 to 5 diaphragms, 0 to 4 longitudinal-oblique diaphragms, and mostly 8.2 to 36.7 μm × 5.4 to 15.8 μm. The morphology of the fungus resembled Alternaria alternata (Fr.) Keissl (Simmons, 2007). Each of the five isolates (SF-001, SF-002, SF-003, SF-004 and SF-005) was molecularly identified using genomic regions of 18S nrDNA (SSU), 28S nrDNA (LSU), RNA polymerase second largest subunit (RPB2), internal transcribed spacer (ITS), glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) and translation elongation factor 1-alpha (TEF1) (Jayawardena et al., 2019). Nucleotide sequences of SSU (MZ275254, ON055696, ON055697, ON055698 and ON055699), LSU (MZ275253, ON062947, ON062948, ON062949, ON062950), RPB2 (MZ275251, ON055377, ON055378, ON055379 and ON055380), ITS (MW866522, MW866523, ON053451, ON053452 and ON053453), GAPDH (MZ286628, ON055381, ON055382, ON055383 and ON055384) and TEF1 (MZ275255, ON055373, ON055374, ON055375 and ON055376) were deposited in GenBank database. The LSU, GAPDH and TEF1 sequences showed 100% identity with A. alternata in NCBI (KX609773, MK683852 and MK637432, respectively). The SSU, RPB2 and ITS sequences showed 99% identity to A. alternata (U05194, MK605898 and MN856409, respectively). In pathogenicity test (Zhang et al., 2020), 3-month-old grafted 'Tainong No.1' seedlings and mature fruit were used. Five-mm-diameter mycelial plugs taken from 7-day-old PDA colonies of each of 5 isolates were placed on the leaves and fruit that were wounded with a sterilized needle to form 3 pinpricks. Sterile PDA plugs were used as control. Three plants and three fruits were used in each treatment, and the test was repeated twice. The inoculated plants and fruit were kept in plastic bags and grown in a chamber at 28℃. Typical lesions were observed on inoculated plants and fruit after 3 days, but the controls remained healthy. A. alternata was consistently reisolated from these typical lesions. Previously, leaf spot on passion fruit caused by A. alternata has only been recorded in New Zealand (Rheinländer, 2010). To our knowledge, this is the first report of A. alternata (Fr.) Keissl. causing leaf spot on passion fruit in China. The identification of the pathogen may help to take effective management strategies of controlling this disease.

Passion fruit originated in South America and cultivated in tropical and subtropical countries for the fresh market and juice processing. In Taiwan, healthy grafted seedlings of passion fruit have been used for replanting every year to minimize the impact of viral and root diseases. The grafted seedlings commonly used purple passion fruit 'Tainung NO.1' (Passiflora edulis × Passiflora edulis forma flavicarpa) abbreviated as PPF as scion, and yellow passion fruit (P. edulis f. flavicarpa) abbreviated as YPF as rootstock. In July 2016 and May 2018, a new leaf disease of passion fruit was observed in Taichung City and Nantou County on 2 to 3-month-old grafted passion fruit seedlings. About 17% of seedlings showed symptoms on leaves in a commercial greenhouse nursery. The infected leaves abscised earlier, causing reduced survival of grafted seedlings. The leaf lesions on YPF and PPF were round to irregular and white-grayish or light brown, and were surrounded by dark green borders and obvious chlorotic halos. Fungal pycnidia were formed in the center of lesions, and extruded yellow-white long conidial tendrils under high humidity. The presumed fungal pathogens were obtained by single spore isolation. Six isolates from the two geographic regions with similar morphological characteristics on potato dextrose agar were obtained. To confirm the pathogenicity, YPF seedlings were inoculated by dropping 10 μL of a conidial suspension of isolate PLS-S2 (107 conidia/mL) on each inoculation site located on abaxial leaves surfaces that were either intact or wounded to form 3 pinpricks in a 4 mm area with a sterilized needle. Three plants were used in a treatment and four leaves of each plant were inoculated. The inoculated plants were kept in plastic bags with high humidity for 3 days and grown in a walk-in growth chamber at 24℃ with a 12-h light regime. The initial symptoms were punctate lesions that later enlarged to round, necrotic spots surrounded by yellow halos, which resembled symptoms in commercial greenhouse nurseries. About 44% of inoculation sites (n= 48) on intact leaves developed lesions at 28 days post-inoculation (dpi) while 100% of inoculation sites (n= 72) on wounded leaves showed lesions at 21 dpi. No lesions developed on leaves with water control. Pathogens reisolated from these lesions were morphologically identical to the inoculated fungus. Conidia were hyaline, filiform to cylindrical with 1-3 nonconstricted septa, and mostly 9-30 × 1.0-2.3 μm. The morphological characteristics of the isolates were similar to Septoria passifloricola Punith (Cline, 2006). Molecular identification was based on concatenated sequences of partial TEF1-α gene (accession nos. MK643056 to MK643061) and β-tubulin gene (accession nos. MK643050 to MK643055) for each of the six isolates. The BLAST search revealed that strain PLS-S2 was 100.0% identical (392 bp) to S. passifloricola CBS 129431 for the TEF1-α gene (KF253443.1) and 98.4% identical (311 bp) for the β-tubulin gene (KF252964.1). Phylogenetic analysis showed that PLS-S2 and five additional isolates clustered with reference strains of S. passifloricola (Verkley et al. 2013) in a well-supported clade (95% bootstrap value). Results suggested that the leaf disease of passion fruit in Taiwan was caused by S. passifloricola. This disease has been reported in Africa, India, Australia, New Zealand, Caribbean, and South America (Cline 2006; Ploetz et al. 2003). If appropriate control actions are not taken, the disease may become a major leaf disease in nurseries in Taiwan.