Identification and Characterization of Pseudocercospora cornicola Causing Leaf Spots on Cornus officinalis

Abstract

Cornus officinalis plants that grow in several locations in Korea have been found to be infected with leaf spot disease. Symptoms include necrotic lesions, which are angular, irregularly shaped, vein-limited, and dark brown, on both sides of the leaves. The causal agent of the disease was identified to be Pseudocercospora cornicola based on the morphological characteristics of the fungus and molecular phylogenetic analysis of the obtained multi-locus DNA sequence data. This is the first report investigating P. cornicola found on C. officinalis in Korea.

Keywords

• fungal isolation
• multi-locus dna dataset
• pathogenicity
• plant pathogen