An Emerging Disease of Chickpea, Basal Stem Rot Caused by <i>Diaporthe aspalathi</i> in China
Danhua Wang,
Dong Deng,
Junliang Zhan,
Wenqi Wu,
Canxing Duan,
Suli Sun,
Zhendong Zhu
Affiliations
Danhua Wang
Key Laboratory of Grain Crop Genetic Resources Evaluation and Utilization, Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China
Dong Deng
Key Laboratory of Grain Crop Genetic Resources Evaluation and Utilization, Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China
Junliang Zhan
Key Laboratory of Grain Crop Genetic Resources Evaluation and Utilization, Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China
Wenqi Wu
Key Laboratory of Grain Crop Genetic Resources Evaluation and Utilization, Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China
Canxing Duan
Key Laboratory of Grain Crop Genetic Resources Evaluation and Utilization, Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China
Suli Sun
Key Laboratory of Grain Crop Genetic Resources Evaluation and Utilization, Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China
Zhendong Zhu
Key Laboratory of Grain Crop Genetic Resources Evaluation and Utilization, Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China
Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is an important legume crop worldwide. An emerging disease, basal stem rot with obvious wilt symptoms, was observed in the upper part of chickpea plants during the disease survey in Qiubei County of Yunnan Province. Three fungal isolates (ZD36-1, ZD36-2, and ZD36-3) were obtained from the diseased tissue of chickpea plants collected from the field. Those isolates were morphologically found to be similar to Diaporthe aspalathi. Molecular sequence analyses of multiple gene regions (ITS, tef1, tub2, cal, and his3) indicated that the three isolates showed a high identity with D. aspalathi. Pathogenicity and host range tests of the isolates were performed on the original host chickpea and eight other legume crops. The isolates were strongly pathogenic to chickpea and appeared highly pathogenic to soybean, cowpea, and mung bean; moderated or mild pathogenic to adzuki bean and common bean; however, the isolates did not cause symptoms on grass pea (Lathyrus sativus). Diaporthe aspalathi was previously reported as a main pathogen causing the southern stem canker in soybean. To our knowledge, this is the first report of D. aspalathi inducing basal stem rot on chickpea worldwide.
