Abstract:During a survey of pathogenic oomycetes in Nanjing, China from June 2019 to October 2020, at least ten adjacent Rhododendron pulchrum plants at a Jiangjun Mountain scenic spot showed symptoms of blight, and crown and root discoloration . Symptomatic root tissues collected from three 6-year-old plants were rinsed with water, cut into 10-mm pieces, surface sterilized with 70% ethanol for 1 min, and plated onto 10% clarified V8 PARP agar (cV8A-PARP) containing pimaricin (20 mg/liter), ampicillin (125 mg/liter), r… Show more
“…All Phytopythium isolates tested were weakly pathogenic or not pathogenic on the seedlings of three tropical tree species but may still negatively impact seed and seedling survival. While Phytopythium are generally less aggressive pathogens compared to Phytophthora and Pythium , many species are increasingly being recognized as important root rot pathogens that impact long-term health of various plant species (Wang et al 2015, Fichtner et al 2016, Noireung et al 2020, Baysal-Gurel et al 2021, Li et al 2021). While these root and stem infections may not lead to seedling death in the short-term, they may affect the long-term fitness and survival of the seedling.…”
Premise: The soils in lowland tropics are teeming with microbial life which can impact plant community structure and diversity through plant-soil feedbacks. While bacteria and fungi have been the focus of most studies in the tropics, the oomycetes may have an outsized effect on seed and seedling health and survival, given their affinity for environments with increased precipitation and temperature. Methods: We assessed the diversity and pathogenicity of oomycete species present in a lowland tropical forest in Panama. We used both a culture dependent leaf-baiting assay and culture independent soil DNA metabarcoding methods to quantify zoospore abundance and species diversity. A subset of the isolates from the baiting assay were used to evaluate pathogenicity and aggressiveness on seedlings of three tree species. Key results: Oomycetes are ubiquitous and common members of the soil microbial community in lowland tropical forests and zoospore abundance was far greater compared to similar studies from temperate and mediterranean forests. We also observed variation in oomycete species ability to infect host plants. Species of Pythium were more aggressive, while species of Phytopythium caused less disease but were more diverse and commonly isolated from the soil. Finally, we found that individual hosts accumulate a distinct oomycete community and was the only factor that had an effect community structure. Conclusions: Collectively, these finding demonstrate that oomycetes are ubiquitous, host-generalist pathogens and saprophytes, that have the potential to impact seed and seedling survival in lowland tropical forests
“…All Phytopythium isolates tested were weakly pathogenic or not pathogenic on the seedlings of three tropical tree species but may still negatively impact seed and seedling survival. While Phytopythium are generally less aggressive pathogens compared to Phytophthora and Pythium , many species are increasingly being recognized as important root rot pathogens that impact long-term health of various plant species (Wang et al 2015, Fichtner et al 2016, Noireung et al 2020, Baysal-Gurel et al 2021, Li et al 2021). While these root and stem infections may not lead to seedling death in the short-term, they may affect the long-term fitness and survival of the seedling.…”
Premise: The soils in lowland tropics are teeming with microbial life which can impact plant community structure and diversity through plant-soil feedbacks. While bacteria and fungi have been the focus of most studies in the tropics, the oomycetes may have an outsized effect on seed and seedling health and survival, given their affinity for environments with increased precipitation and temperature. Methods: We assessed the diversity and pathogenicity of oomycete species present in a lowland tropical forest in Panama. We used both a culture dependent leaf-baiting assay and culture independent soil DNA metabarcoding methods to quantify zoospore abundance and species diversity. A subset of the isolates from the baiting assay were used to evaluate pathogenicity and aggressiveness on seedlings of three tree species. Key results: Oomycetes are ubiquitous and common members of the soil microbial community in lowland tropical forests and zoospore abundance was far greater compared to similar studies from temperate and mediterranean forests. We also observed variation in oomycete species ability to infect host plants. Species of Pythium were more aggressive, while species of Phytopythium caused less disease but were more diverse and commonly isolated from the soil. Finally, we found that individual hosts accumulate a distinct oomycete community and was the only factor that had an effect community structure. Conclusions: Collectively, these finding demonstrate that oomycetes are ubiquitous, host-generalist pathogens and saprophytes, that have the potential to impact seed and seedling survival in lowland tropical forests
“…In this work, we demonstrated for the first time the pathogenicity of P. litorale on kiwifruit plants and P. helicoides was reported for the first time on kiwifruit plants in Italy. P. litorale , P. helicoides and P. vexans were previously reported as pathogenic on other hosts, such as on Platanus orientalis [ 37 ], Rhododendron pulchrum [ 38 ], on citrus, apple, and pear [ 39 ], and on almond [ 40 ]. Moreover, P. helicoides was already reported as agent of root and collar rot on kiwifruit in China [ 41 ].…”
Since 2012, the kiwifruit vine decline syndrome (KVDS) has progressively compromised Italian kiwifruit orchards. Different abiotic and biotic factors have been associated with the establishment and development of KVDS. During monitoring of orchards affected by KVDS in north-western Italy during 2016–2019, 71 Phytopythium spp. were isolated. Based on maximum likelihood concatenated phylogeny on the ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 region of the rDNA, large subunit rDNA, and cytochrome oxidase I, isolates were identified as P. vexans (52), P. littorale (10), P. chamaehyphon (7) and P. helicoides (2). Phytopythium litorale and P. helicoides are reported for the first time as agents of KVDS in Italy. To demonstrate pathogenicity and fulfil Koch’s postulates, representative isolates of P. vexans, P. littorale, P. chamaehyphon and P. helicoides were inoculated in potted plants. In these trials, waterlogging was applied to stress plant with a temporary anoxia and to favour the production of infective zoospores by the oomycetes. In experiments in vitro, the four species showed the highest growth at 25–30 °C, depending on the media used. P. helicoides was able to grow also at 40 °C. The four species were able to grow in vitro at a pH ranging from 5.0 to 8.0, showing that pH had less effect on growth than temperature. The present study suggests a strong role of different species of Phytopythium in the establishment and development of KVDS. Phytopythium spp. could be favoured by the average increase in soil temperatures during summer, associated with global warming.
“…(2019) developed LAMP assays for detecting P. cinnamomi in soil and targeted a new target gene ( Pcinn100006 ) that had been identified from genomic sequencing data. Over recent years, there have been many reports of pathogens causing crown and root rot in Rhododendron pulchrum , including P. pini ( Xu et al., 2021 ), Phytopythium littorale ( Li et al., 2021 ), and Phytopythium helicoides ( Chen et al., 2021 ) except P. cinnamomi . Therefore, more isolates need to be used to verify the specificity of the RPA-LFD assay, especially those causing diseases in the same host.…”
Phytophthora cinnamomi causes crown and root wilting in more than 5,000 plant species and represents a significant threat to the health of natural ecosystems and horticultural crops. The early and accurate detection of P. cinnamomi is a fundamental step in disease prevention and appropriate management. In this study, based on public genomic sequence data and bioinformatic analysis of several Phytophthora, Phytopythium, and Pythium species, we have identified a new target gene, Pcinn13739; this allowed us to establish a recombinase polymerase amplification–lateral flow dipstick (RPA-LFD) assay for the detection of P. cinnamomi. Pcinn13739-RPA-LFD assay was highly specific to P. cinnamomi. Test results for 12 isolates of P. cinnamomi were positive, but negative for 50 isolates of 25 kinds of Phytophthora species, 13 isolates of 10 kinds of Phytopythium and Pythium species, 32 isolates of 26 kinds of fungi species, and 11 isolates of two kinds of Bursaphelenchus species. By detecting as little as 10 pg.µl−1 of genomic DNA from P. cinnamomi in a 50-µl reaction, the RPA-LFD assay was 100 times more sensitive than conventional PCR assays. By using RPA-LFD assay, P. cinnamomi was also detected on artificially inoculated fruit from Malus pumila, the leaves of Rhododendron pulchrum, the roots of sterile Lupinus polyphyllus, and the artificially inoculated soil. Results in this study indicated that this sensitive, specific, and rapid RPA-LFD assay has potentially significant applications to diagnosing P. cinnamomi, especially under time- and resource-limited conditions.
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