Stilbocrea banihashemiana sp. nov. a New Fungal Pathogen Causing Stem Cankers and Twig Dieback of Fruit Trees

Abstract

Stem cankers and twig dieback were the most serious disease of fig (Ficus carica) and loquat (Eriobotrya japonica) noticed in a survey of fruit tree orchards in the Fars Province, Iran. Isolates of Bionectriaceae were consistently recovered from symptomatic fig and loquat trees. Phylogenetic analyses of multiple nuclear loci, internal transcribed spacer regions (ITS) of rDNA, RNA polymerase II subunit 2 (rpb2), and translation elongation factor 1-α (tef1), combined with morphological observations, revealed that isolates could be referred to a still unknown taxon, which was formally described as Stilbocrea banihashemiana sp. nov. Phylogenetically, isolates from fig and loquat trees clustered in a well-supported monophyletic group within the Stilbocrea clade of Bionectriaceae, closely related to S. walteri. Stilbocrea banihashemiana sp. nov. was characterized by the lack of stilbella-like asexual structure in both natural substrates and pure cultures and produced two morphologically distinct types of conidia, globose and cylindrical, formed on short and long simple phialides. In pathogenicity tests, S. banihashemiana sp. nov. induced stem cankers in both fig and loquat, wood discoloration in fig and twig dieback in loquat. Pathogenicity tests also showed that the potential host range of this novel pathogen includes other economically relevant horticultural trees.

Neocosmospora caricae sp. nov. and N. metavorans, two new stem and trunk canker pathogens on Ficus carica in Iran

“…Phomopsis cinerascens) (Banihashemi and Javadi 2009). Another causal agent of stem cankers and twig dieback of fig trees in southern Iran has been very recently reported to be Stilbocrea banihashemiana (Bolboli et al 2022). Our results demonstrate that some Neocosmospora species (formerly (Pfenning et al 2014, Crespo et al 2019, there are no reports of Fusarium or Neocosmospora cankers from edible fig.…”

“…Iran is the fifth largest producer of figs after Turkey, Morocco, Greece, and Spain (FAOSTAT 2020) Section Editor: Gerhard Rambold species from Ceratocystidaceae, Ceratocystis ficicola Kajitani & Masuya, in Japan (Kajitani and Masuya 2011), and Stilbocrea banihashemiana Z. Bolboli, B. Tavakolian & Mostowf., from Bionectriaceae, in Iran (Bolboli et al 2022).…”

A super absorbent polymer containing copper to control Plenodomus tracheiphilus the causative agent of mal secco disease of lemon

“…Plenodomus tracheiphilus , the causal agent of MSD, a destructive tracheomycosis of lemon, was the case study to investigate the potentialities of SAP containing a fungicidal active ingredient. The capacity of this hydrogel to absorb Cu 2+ ions and regulate the flux of liquids through which Cu 2+ ions are delivered inside the plant vascular system, confers to this innovative Cu-containing formulation a potential protection and localized eradication activity against other pathogens, such as fungi causing wood rot and cankers of citrus, fruit trees and grapevine ( Roccotelli et al, 2014 ; Aloi et al, 2021 ; Moretti et al, 2021 ; Bolboli et al, 2022 ). In addition, the ability of SAP to slowly release Cu 2+ ions could be exploited in the control of soil borne plant diseases in soilless culture as this formulation would offer the advantage of preventing the leaching of this heavy metal and groundwater contamination.…”

Circumfusicillium cavernae gen. et sp. nov. (Bionectriaceae, Hypocreales) Isolated from a Hypogean Roman Cryptoporticus

“…While various efforts aiming to explore other gene regions (e.g., the translation elongation 1-α ( tef1 ) and the RNA polymerase II subunit 2 ( rpb2 )) in this family have been made, their availability is still limited to only a few genera (e.g., Geosmithia and Clonostachys ). In fact, with the exception of the LSU region, few additional sequence data are available (including from the ITS rDNA region), further hampering proper taxonomic identifications in this family [ 27 , 28 ]. The phylogenetic analyses pointed out that Circumfusicillium is closely related to Ovicillium ; the new genus; peculiar morphological characteristics allow for their distinction.…”

“…The obtained sequences were initially compared with the sequences available in the National Center of Biotechnology Information nucleotide database using NCBI’s Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST), with the option standard nucleotide Blastn [ 26 ]. To further evaluate the Bionectriaceae isolate’s phylogenetic position, three datasets consisting of partial LSU (dataset 1), partial ITS (dataset 2) and concatenated ITS and LSU (dataset 3) reference sequences were constructed (adapted from [ 27 , 28 ], see Table 1 ). In addition, considering that some GenBank “uncultured” sequences and isolates identified as Geosmithia sp.…”