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First report of Phyllosticta citricarpa and description of two new species, P. paracapitalensis and P. paracitricarpa , from citrus in Europe

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The genus Phyllosticta occurs worldwide, and contains numerous plant pathogenic, endophytic and saprobic species. Phyllosticta citricarpa is the causal agent of Citrus Black Spot disease (CBS), affecting fruits and leaves of several citrus hosts (Rutaceae), and can also be isolated from asymptomatic citrus tissues. Citrus Black Spot occurs in citrus-growing regions with warm summer rainfall climates, but is absent in countries of the European Union (EU). Phyllosticta capitalensis is morphologically similar to P. citricarpa, but is a non-pathogenic endophyte, commonly isolated from citrus leaves and fruits and a wide range of other hosts, and is known to occur in Europe. To determine which Phyllosticta spp. occur within citrus growing regions of EU countries, several surveys were conducted (2015–2017) in the major citrus production areas of Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal and Spain to collect both living plant material and leaf litter in commercial nurseries, orchards, gardens, backyards and plant collections. A total of 64 Phyllosticta isolates were obtained from citrus in Europe, of which 52 were included in a multi-locus (ITS, actA, tef1, gapdh, LSU and rpb2 genes) DNA dataset. Two isolates from Florida (USA), three isolates from China, and several reference strains from Australia, South Africa and South America were included in the overall 99 isolate dataset. Based on the data obtained, two known species were identified, namely P. capitalensis (from asymptomatic living leaves of Citrus spp.) in Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal and Spain, and P. citricarpa (from leaf litter of C. sinensis and C. limon) in Italy, Malta and Portugal. Moreover, two new species were described, namely P. paracapitalensis (from asymptomatic living leaves of Citrus spp.) in Italy and Spain, and P. paracitricarpa (from leaf litter of C. limon) in Greece. On a genotypic level, isolates of P. citricarpa populations from Italy and Malta (MAT1-2-1) represented a single clone, and those from Portugal (MAT1-1-1) another. Isolates of P. citricarpa and P. paracitricarpa were able to induce atypical lesions (necrosis) in artificially inoculated mature sweet orange fruit, while P. capitalensis and P. paracapitalensis induced no lesions. The Phyllosticta species recovered were not found to be widespread, and were not associated with disease symptoms, indicating that the fungi persisted over time, but did not cause disease.
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... P. citricarpa causes citrus black spot (CBS) (Kiely, 1948;Van der Aa, 1973), P. citriasiana and P. citrimaxima both cause citrus tan spot of Citrus maxima (Wikee et al., 2013;Wulandari et al., 2009), and P. citrichinaensis causes spots and freckle on several Citrus species (Wang et al., 2012). Recently, Guarnaccia et al. (2017) described a new species, Phyllosticta paracitricarpa, which is genetically closely related to P. citricarpa. P. paracitricarpa was isolated from Citrus limon leaf litter in Greek lemon orchards (Guarnaccia et al., 2017) as well as from lemon fruits in China (Wang et al., 2023) and has been shown to be pathogenic to C. sinensis and C. limon after artificial inoculations on detached leaves and fruits (Guarnaccia et al., 2017;Wang et al., 2023). ...
... Recently, Guarnaccia et al. (2017) described a new species, Phyllosticta paracitricarpa, which is genetically closely related to P. citricarpa. P. paracitricarpa was isolated from Citrus limon leaf litter in Greek lemon orchards (Guarnaccia et al., 2017) as well as from lemon fruits in China (Wang et al., 2023) and has been shown to be pathogenic to C. sinensis and C. limon after artificial inoculations on detached leaves and fruits (Guarnaccia et al., 2017;Wang et al., 2023). It was also retrospectively demonstrated that some Chinese isolates causing black spots on mandarin fruits, tentatively named "P. ...
... Recently, Guarnaccia et al. (2017) described a new species, Phyllosticta paracitricarpa, which is genetically closely related to P. citricarpa. P. paracitricarpa was isolated from Citrus limon leaf litter in Greek lemon orchards (Guarnaccia et al., 2017) as well as from lemon fruits in China (Wang et al., 2023) and has been shown to be pathogenic to C. sinensis and C. limon after artificial inoculations on detached leaves and fruits (Guarnaccia et al., 2017;Wang et al., 2023). It was also retrospectively demonstrated that some Chinese isolates causing black spots on mandarin fruits, tentatively named "P. ...
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Citrus crops are affected by many fungal diseases. Among them, Citrus Black Spot caused by the ascomycete Phyllosticta citricarpa is particularly economically damaging wherever it occurs. Many other species of Phyllosticta are described on Citrus, but only P. citricarpa is considered a quarantine pest on the European continent. In order to prevent the introduction of this species into Europe, it is essential to have a detection test which can reliably identify it, and not confuse it with other species present on citrus, notably P. paracitricarpa. The latter taxon has recently been described as very close to P. citricarpa, and most detection tests do not allow to distinguish the two species. In this work, we exploited the genomic data of 37 isolates of Phyllosticta spp. from citrus, firstly to assess their phylogenetic relationships, and secondly to search for genomic regions that allowed the definition of species-specific markers of P. citricarpa. Analysis of 51 concatenated genes separated P. citricarpa and P. paracitricarpa in two phylogenetic clades. A locus was selected to define a hydrolysis probe and primers combination that could be used in real-time PCR for the specific detection of the quarantine species, to the exclusion of all others present on Citrus. This test was then thoroughly validated on a set of strains covering a wide geographical diversity, and on numerous biological samples to demonstrate its reliability for regulatory control. The validation data highlighted the need to check the reliability of the test in advance, when a change of reagents was being considered. 2023. Harnessing the power of comparative genomics to support the distinction of sister species within Phyllosticta and development of highly specific detection of Phyllosticta citricarpa causing citrus black spot by real-time PCR. PeerJ 11:e16354
... Furthermore, the morphological characteristics used to identify the pathogen are confusing within the species of the Phyllosticta genus associated with citrus [9,10,11]. However, five Phyllosticta species have been identified as causal agents of citrus fungal diseases such as Phyllosticta citricarpa, associated with black spot disease; Phyllosticta paracitricarpa, which causes damage to detached sweet orange fruit [12]; Phyllosticta citriasiana [13] and Phyllosticta citrimaxima [14], associated with brown spot of pomelo; and Phyllosticta citrichinaensis which induce symptoms on leaves and fruits of pomelo, sweet orange and mandarin [11]. In addition, Guignardia mangiferae, an endophytic species has been reported. ...
... Black spot is a major constraint to citrus production in Benin. The morphological characteristics of the disease pathogen correspond to those of P. citricarpa [12,25,26,27]. Mycelial growth of the fungus is slow on PDA medium. ...
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... However, due to the challenge of similar morphological features for taxonomic identification and homology analysis, the classification of Phyllosticta species has been complex, leading to a clu ered taxonomy. With advancements in molecular biology, the application of molecular data for species phylogeny has become increasingly sophisticated [5,33,43,52]. Wang ...
... However, due to the challenge of similar morphological features for taxonomic identification and homology analysis, the classification of Phyllosticta species has been complex, leading to a cluttered taxonomy. With advancements in molecular biology, the application of molecular data for species phylogeny has become increasingly sophisticated [5,33,43,52]. ...
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The genus Phyllosticta has been reported worldwide and contains many pathogenic and endophytic species isolated from a wide range of plant hosts. A multipoint phylogeny based on gene coding combinatorial data sets for the internal transcribed spacer (ITS), large subunit of ribosomal RNA (LSU rDNA), translation elongation factor 1α (TEF1α), actin (ACT), and glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GPDH), combined with morphological characteristics, was performed. We describe three new species, P. fujianensis sp. nov., P. saprophytica sp. nov., and P. turpiniae sp. nov., and annotate and discusse their similarities and differences in morphological relationships and phylogenetic phases with closely related species.
... This type of cropping facilitates the development of diseases and the colonization of healthy neighbored citrus orchards by pathogens. Phyllosticta sp. and Colletotrichum sp. are among the fungi that sporulate extensively, with one ascospore capable of releasing over 3,000 lesions (Guarnaccia et al., 2017). In terms of severity, analyses showed that black spot was the most severe (>80%) of all fungal diseases in the agroecological zones. ...
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Fungal diseases are a major constraint for the intensification of citrus production in Benin. The aim of this study was to identify the main citrus fungal diseases and to assess their distribution, prevalence, and severity). A total of 315 orchards were surveyed in the four agro-ecological zones (AEZ V, VI, VII, and VIII) where citrus is produced in Benin. During the surveys, samples of diseased fruits were collected for isolation in the laboratory. The results revealed four main fungal diseases including black spot caused by Phyllosticta sp., anthracnose caused by Colletotrichum sp., brown rot disease caused by Curvularia sp., and fruit rot caused by Fusarium sp. Among these diseases, black spot is the most distributed with 76.69% infected plants as compared to anthracnose, brown rot disease and fruit rot which infected 32.4%, 6.3% and 1.9% of plants respectively. The diseases severity was 2.88, 1.46, 1.08 and 0.60 for black spot, anthracnose, brown rot and fruit rot respectively. Of the three cultivated varieties, Pineapple and Valencia were susceptible to the four diseases while the variety Tangelo was less susceptible. The highest severity (3.51) was recorded in the AEZ VI and the lowest (0.81) in the AEZ VII. This study showed that citrus tree was susceptible to several diseases in Benin with black spot disease caused by Phyllosticta sp., as the most important. Any effort to increase qualitatively and quantitatively citrus productivity should be based on sustainable management of diseases
... The infected leaf litter provides suitable conditions for pseudothecia to establish, grow and reproduce. These pseudothecia then release ascospores as primary inoculum, starting new infections (Dummel et al., 2015;Fourie et al., 2013;Guarnaccia et al., 2017;Huang and Chang, 1972;Kotzé, 1963). The release of mature ascospores from the asci of pseudothecia is triggered by rainfall, irrigation, or heavy dew (Baldassari et al., 2006), excessive rainfall, however, will disrupt ascospore discharge and cause the dead leaves to decompose, destroying the P. citricarpa substrate (Kotzé, 1963(Kotzé, , 1981Lee and Huang, 1973). ...
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