First Report of Colletotrichum fructicola Causing Anthracnose on Macadamia in China

Abstract

Macadamia (Macadamia ternifolia Maiden and Betche) is an important commercial crop in the world and has the reputation of being the king of nuts (Liu et al. 2019). In August 2020, symptoms of anthracnose appeared on leaves of macadamia in Chongzuo, Guangxi Province, China, with an incidence of 15-20%. The disease developed from the edge of leaf. Initially, the disease symptoms on leaves were faded green spots, light yellow. After expanding and linking together, the leaves appeared brown or black irregular spots, and the edges of diseased leaves dried up and formed large necrosis, eventually leading to defoliation. A large number of orange-yellow spots (acervuli) developed on the diseased parts. Under high humidity conditions, the diseased part was grayish-brown or black, and a large number of yellowish-brown conidia were produced on the leaf surface (Fig.1 A-E). Ten symptomatic leaves were collected and washed with distilled water. Twelve lesion marginal tissues were sterilized with 75% ethanol (V/V) for 30 s and 1% NaOCl for 1min and rinsed with sterile distilled water, plated on potato dextrose agar (PDA) and incubated at 28°C under light. After 3 days, the incubated samples all produced similar cultural morphology. One isolate named GXMC2 as a representative was selected for following study. The colony by single-spore purification on PDA were grayish green with a white outer ring and cottony on surface, pale blackish green in reverse side (Fig.1 F). Conidia with oil droplets were solitary, cylindrical, transparent and measuring 13.78 to 19.25 μm (average 16.90 μm) × 5.14 to 7.33 μm (average 6.23 μm) (n=100) (Fig.1 G). Appressoria were brown to dark brown, with different shapes such as ovoid, elliptical or irregular, some with lobes. The average size was 7.89 to 13.25 μm (average 10.64 μm) × 5.76 to 9.02 μm (average 7.86 μm) (n=100) (Fig.1 H). No setae were found. The isolate was identified as Colletotrichum fructicola on the basis of the morphology of the colonies, conidia and appressoria (Park et al. 2018). The six target gene sequences, including internal transcribed spacer (ITS), β-tubulin (TUB), actin (ACT), histone3 (HIS3), chitin synthase A (CHS), and glyceraldehydes-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPHD) (Qiu et al. 2020), were selected for PCR amplification. The resulting sequences were deposited in GenBank under accession numbers MZ821661, MZ821660, MZ821662, MZ821663, MZ821664 and MZ821665 respectively. Phylogenetic analysis of the concatenated sequences were performed with MEGA 7.0 software. The isolate was grouped in the same clade as other C. fructicola (Fig.2). In May 2022, Inoculation was conducted in the field. Four-year-old macadamia leaves were disinfected with 75% alcohol. The conidial suspension was sprayed on 5 unwounded healthy leaves, and 5 leaves sprayed with sterile distilled water served as control. The experiment was replicated 3 times, with each replicate containing 5 leaves. The average daily temperature and average daily relative humidity in the field were 30°C and 62%, respectively. After 2 days, yellow-brown spots appeared on the inoculated leaves and expanded outward. After 4 days, the diseased areas were dark brown, and the controls remained asymptomatic. The same fungal pathogen was reisolated and purified from inoculated leaves and the identity was confirmed by morphological characterization and molecular analysis, confirming Koch’s postulates (Fig.1 I-J). In China, C. fructicola has been reported on Passiflora edulis Sims, Brassica parachinensis, Illicium verum, Peucedanum praeruptorum, etc. (Li et al. 2021; Yu et al. 2022; Zhao et al. 2021; Ma et al. 2020). To our knowledge, this is the first report of anthracnose of macadamia caused by C. fructicola in China. This study provides the basis for further research on this disease.