Anthracnose of olive (Olea europaea ssp. europaea L.), caused by Colletotrichum species, is a serious disease causing fruit rot and branch dieback, whose epidemics are highly dependent on cultivar susceptibility and environmental conditions. Over a period of 10 years, there have been three severe epidemics in Andalusia (southern Spain) that allowed us to complete the assessment of the World Olive Germplasm Bank of Córdoba, one of the most important cultivar collections worldwide.A total of 308 cultivars from 21 countries were evaluated, mainly Spain (174 cvs.), Syria (29 cvs.), Italy (20 cvs.), Turkey (15 cvs.), and Greece (16 cvs.). Disease assessments were performed using a 0–10 rating scale, specifically developed to estimate the incidence of symptomatic fruit in the tree canopy. Also, the susceptibility of five reference cultivars was confirmed by artificial inoculation. Because of the direct relationship between the maturity of the fruit and their susceptibility to the pathogen, evaluations were performed at the end of fruit ripening, which forced coupling assessments according to the maturity state of the trees. By applying the cluster analysis to the 308 cultivars, these were classified as follows: 66 cvs. highly susceptible (21.4%), 83 cvs. susceptible (26.9%), 66 cvs. moderately susceptible (21.4%), 61 cvs. resistant (19.8%), and 32 cvs. highly resistant (10.4%). Representative cultivars of these five categories are “Ocal,” “Lechín de Sevilla,” “Arbequina,” “Picual,” and “Frantoio,” respectively. With some exceptions, such as cvs. Arbosana, Empeltre and Picual, most of the Spanish cultivars, such as “Arbequina,” “Cornicabra,” “Hojiblanca,” “Manzanilla de Sevilla,” “Morisca,” “Picudo,” “Farga,” and “Verdial de Huévar” are included in the categories of moderately susceptible, susceptible or highly susceptible. The phenotypic evaluation of anthracnose reaction is a limiting factor for the selection of olive cultivars by farmers, technicians, and breeders.

Viruega, J.

Olive scab caused by the mitosporic fungus Spilocaea oleagina is the most important foliar disease of olive. Limited information is available on pathogen survival and disease epidemiology; however, this information is essential for development of new control strategies. Pathogen survival and inoculum production on infected olive leaves and conidial dispersal were evaluated during 4 years in an olive orchard of the susceptible ‘Picual’ in southern Spain. Infected leaves in the tree canopy were important for pathogen survival and conidia production. The number of conidia per square centimeter of scab lesion and their viability varied greatly throughout the seasons and between years; conidial density in lesions was highest (about 1 to 5 × 105 conidia cm–2) from November to February in favorable years. Conidial density declined sharply in other periods of the year (becoming zero in summer) or in less favorable years. The pathogen did not form new conidia in scab lesions, although some pseudothecia-like structures and chlamydospores were detected on fallen leaves. Under humid conditions, the pathogen could not be detected on fallen leaves after 3 months because the leaves were colonized by saprophytic fungi. The dispersal of conidia as a function of distance from infected leaves in the tree canopy was well described by an exponential model which, together with the lack of conidia in a Burkard spore trap, showed that conidia were mainly rain-splash dispersed. Some trapped conidia were attached to olive leaf trichomes, suggesting that detached trichomes might enhance wind dispersal of conidia.

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