Fungal trunk pathogens associated with wood decay of almond trees on Mallorca (Spain)

Abstract

Severe decline of almond trees has recently been observed in several orchards on the island of Mallorca (Balearic Islands, western Mediterranean Sea). However, the identity of the causal agents has not yet been investigated. Between August 2008 and June 2010, wood samples from branches of almond trees showing internal necroses and brown to black vascular streaking were collected in the Llevant region on the island of Mallorca. Several fungal species were subsequently isolated from the margin between healthy and symptomatic tissue. Five species of Botryosphaeriaceae (namely Botryosphaeria dothidea, Diplodia olivarum, D. seriata, Neofusicoccum australe and N. parvum), Eutypa lata, Phaeoacremonium iranianum and Phomopsis amygdali were identified based on morphology, culture characteristics and DNA sequence comparisons. Neofusicoccum parvum was the dominant species, followed by E. lata, D. olivarum and N. australe. First reports from almond include D. olivarum and Pm. iranianum. Two species are newly described, namely Collophora hispanica sp. nov. and Phaeoacremonium amygdalinum sp. nov.

Molecular characterisation and pathogenicity ofPhaeoacremoniumspp. associated with esca disease of grapevine in Northern Iran

“…Esca may cause sudden wilt of the whole plant or parts of the plant during summer, known as apoplexy (Mugnai et al 1999;Mostert et al 2006b;Essakhi et al 2008). Until now, 36 Phaeoacremonium species have been described from different woody plant hosts (Damm et al 2008;Graham et al 2009;Gramaje et al 2009Gramaje et al , 2012, Phaeohyphomycosis of subcutaneous tissue in humans and insect larvae worldwide (Mostert et al 2005); of those, 20 species have been described from grapevine with esca disease symptoms (Moster et al 2006a,b;Essakhi et al 2008;Gramaje et al 2009). Whether the frequent isolation and record of Phaeoacremonium spp.…”

“…on grapevines is an artefact of extensive sampling from grapevines or the grapevine host is indeed preferred by the species of this genus, mostly remains unknown. A recent study on etiologic agents of die back, canker and necrosis symptoms on rosaceous woody hosts has shown Phaeoacremonium species having a wider host range than previously thought (Damm et al 2008(Damm et al , 2010Gramaje et al 2009Gramaje et al , 2012.…”

Occurrence of Botryosphaeriaceae species associated with grapevine dieback in Algeria

“…It has been reported as the dominant fungus affecting grapevine in France (Dubos et al, 1997) with 92.6% occurrence in the analyzed plants; it is mostly localized in sectoral necrosis and brown bands. Its ability to cause necrosis in the woods or on the herbaceous part in grapevine has been established by other authors (Larignon et al, 2001;Van Niekerk et al, 2004;Rego et al, 2009), and it was the dominant species reported on almond on Spain (Gramaje et al, 2012). This species has been frequently been reported as an important pathogen of many woody plants in temperate regions around the world (Phillips, 2002;Inderbitzin et al, 2010).…”

Phaeoacremonium: From esca disease to phaeohyphomycosis

“…are currently recognized (Crous et al 1996;Dupont et al 2000;Groenewald et al 2001;Mostert et al 2005Mostert et al , 2006Damm et al 2008;Essakhi et al 2008;Graham et al 2009;Gramaje et al 2009bGramaje et al , 2012Gramaje et al , 2014Raimondo et al 2014;Urbez-Torres et al 2014). These include five species described as Togninia spp.…”

“…Even though Phaeoacremonium species can infect a wide range of woody hosts (Fig 1, Table 1), more recent publications have shown the importance of Phaeoacremonium species in causing brown wood streaking of Olea europea (Nigro et al 2013;Carlucci et al 2015) and Prunus spp. (Damm et al 2008;Gramaje et al 2012;Olmo et al 2014). (Essakhi et al 2008); Hungary (Essakhi et al 2008); Iran (Mohammadi 2011); South Africa (White et al 2011); Spain (Gramaje et al 2007); USA (Groenewald et al 2001 ; Italy (Essakhi et al 2008); South Africa (White et al 2011); Spain (Gramaje et al 2009a (Auger et al 2005); Greece (Essakhi et al 2008); Hungary (Essakhi et al 2008); Iran , Israel (Essakhi et al 2008); Italy (Crous et al 1996); France (Larignon & Dubos 1997); Germany (Fisher & Kassemeyer 2003); Mexico (Hern andez-Mart ınez et al 2008); Portugal (Rego et al 2000); South Africa (Crous et al 1996), Spain (Armengol et al 2001); Turkey (Ari 2000); Uruguay (Abreo et al 2011); USA (Crous et al 1996) Yugoslavia (Crous et al 1996 Petri disease is associated with stunted growth and dieback of young grapevines, and can cause losses of up to 50 % in newly planted vineyards (Pascoe & Cottral 2000).…”