A New Leaf Blight Disease Caused by <i>Alternaria jacinthicola</i> on Banana in China
Bin Wang,
Yongyan Zhang,
Jiapeng Liu,
Ou Sheng,
Fan Liu,
Dongliang Qiu,
Peitao Lü,
Guiming Deng,
Chunzhen Cheng
Affiliations
Bin Wang
College of Horticulture, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
Yongyan Zhang
College of Horticulture, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
Jiapeng Liu
College of Horticulture, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
Ou Sheng
Institute of Fruit Tree Research, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences/Key Laboratory of South Subtropical Fruit Biology and Genetic Resource Utilization, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs/Guangdong Key Laboratory of Tropical and Subtropical Fruit Tree Research, Guangzhou 510640, China
Fan Liu
College of Horticulture, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
Dongliang Qiu
College of Horticulture, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
Peitao Lü
College of Horticulture, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
Guiming Deng
Institute of Fruit Tree Research, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences/Key Laboratory of South Subtropical Fruit Biology and Genetic Resource Utilization, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs/Guangdong Key Laboratory of Tropical and Subtropical Fruit Tree Research, Guangzhou 510640, China
Chunzhen Cheng
College of Horticulture, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
A leaf blight disease with an incidence level of about 50% was found on Robusta banana in Guangdong province of China in September 2020. The early symptom appeared as pale gray to black brown, irregular, small, necrotic lesions mainly on the top 3–5 leaves. Severely infected leaves were withered and necrotic. Two representative fungus strains, strain L1 and strain L2, were isolated from affected banana leaves, and morphological and molecular identification analysis confirmed that the two fungi were both Alternaria jacinthicola. Many Alternaria species have been reported to cause wilting, decay, leaf blight and leaf spots on plants and lead to serious economic losses in their production, including A. alternata, causing leaf blight and leaf sport diseases on banana. The Koch’s postulates of A. jacinthicola causing the leaf blight disease was further fulfilled, which confirmed that it is the causal agent of this disease. To our knowledge, this is the first report of A. jacinthicola causing leaf blight on banana in China.
