Highbush blueberry is an increasingly important crop due to its economic value and demonstrated health benefits of blueberries. Leaf spots are consideredas minor diseases of blueberry plants, but they adversely affect blueberry productivity,causing reduced photosynthetic activity, flower bud formation and berry production.Surveys of blueberry crops were conducted in Piedmont, Northern Italy, during2019-2020. Fungi isolated from leaf spots of the blueberry cultivar ‘Blue Ribbon’ wereidentified as Colletotrichum helleniense through a robust multi-locus phylogeny. Eightgenomic loci were considered: tub, gapdh, act, cal, his3, chs-1, ApMat and gs. Morphologicalcharacters of a representative strain were assessed. Pathogenicity was confirmedon four blueberry cultivars, although with different levels of aggressiveness to the cultivars.This study shows the importance of a polyphasic approach to investigate speciesof Colletotrichum, and the relevance of molecular tools for the species-level characterizationwithin the ‘Kahawae’ clade. This is the first report of Colletotrichum helleniensecausing leaf anthracnose on Vaccinium corymbosum
Leaf anthracnose and defoliation of blueberry caused by Colletotrichum helleniense in Northern Italy
Guarnaccia V.
First
;Martino I.;Brondino L.;Gullino M. L.Last
2021-01-01
Abstract
Highbush blueberry is an increasingly important crop due to its economic value and demonstrated health benefits of blueberries. Leaf spots are consideredas minor diseases of blueberry plants, but they adversely affect blueberry productivity,causing reduced photosynthetic activity, flower bud formation and berry production.Surveys of blueberry crops were conducted in Piedmont, Northern Italy, during2019-2020. Fungi isolated from leaf spots of the blueberry cultivar ‘Blue Ribbon’ wereidentified as Colletotrichum helleniense through a robust multi-locus phylogeny. Eightgenomic loci were considered: tub, gapdh, act, cal, his3, chs-1, ApMat and gs. Morphologicalcharacters of a representative strain were assessed. Pathogenicity was confirmedon four blueberry cultivars, although with different levels of aggressiveness to the cultivars.This study shows the importance of a polyphasic approach to investigate speciesof Colletotrichum, and the relevance of molecular tools for the species-level characterizationwithin the ‘Kahawae’ clade. This is the first report of Colletotrichum helleniensecausing leaf anthracnose on Vaccinium corymbosum
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