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First Report of Brown Rot Caused by Monilia polystroma on Apple in Serbia

Monilia polystroma van Leeuwen is a new Japanese species, similar to M. fructigena but distinguishable based on morphological and molecular characteristics (3). After its first discovery on apple in Japan, occurance of M. polystroma in Europe has been reported in Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Switzerland (2,3,4). In October 2011, during a survey for apple fungal pathogens in the Bela Crkva district, 15 apple fruit (Malus domestica Borkh.) cv. Golden Delicious were collected. Two isolates of Monilinia polystroma were obtained from apple fruit showing brown rot, covered with small yellowish sporodohia. The pathogen was identified as M. polystroma based on morphological and molecular features (1,3). Upon isolation, colonies cultivated on PDA were white to grayish and the mycelium grew 8.85 mm per day at 22 ± 1°C in 12-h light/12-h dark regime. After 6 to 8 days of incubation, black stromatal plates were observed on the reverse sides of the inoculated petri dishes. Conidia were one-celled, limoniform, hyaline, 14.7 to 21.88 μm (16.2 mean) × 7.85 to 12.92 μm (10.8 mean), and were produced in branched monilioid chains on inoculated apple fruit. Morphological identification was confirmed by PCR (1) using genomic DNA extracted from the mycelium of pure cultures, and amplified products of 425 bp in length, specific for M. polystroma were amplified as expected with primers MO368-5 and MO368-8R. For one isolate, the ribosomal ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 region was obtained, using primers ITS1 and ITS4, and deposited in GenBank (Accession No JX315717). The sequence was 498 bp in length and showed 100% identity with sequences deposited for M. polystroma in NCBI GenBank (JN128835, AM937114, GU067539). Pathogenicity was confirmed by wound-inoculating five surface-sterilized, mature apple fruit with mycelium plugs (5 mm in diameter) of both isolates grown on PDA. Control fruit were inoculated with sterile PDA plugs. After 3 days of incubation in plastic containers, under high humidity (RH 90 to 95%) at 22 ± 1°C, typical symptoms of brown rot developed on inoculated fruit, while control fruit remained symptomless. Isolates recovered from symptomatic fruit showed the same morphological and molecular characteristics as original isolates. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of M. polystroma in Serbia. Further studies are necessary to estimate the economic importance and geographic distribution of this organism in Serbia.

References: (1) M.-J. Côté et al. Plant Dis. 88:1219, 2004. (2) M. Hilber-Bodmer et al. Plant Dis. 96: 146, 2012. (3) G. C. M. van Leeuwen et al. Mycol. Res. 106: 444, 2002. (4) OEPP/EPPO Reporting Service. Retrieved from http://archives.eppo.int/EPPOReporting/2011/Rse-1106.pdf