HomeWHICHWhich Kingdom Does Fusarium Redolens Belong To

Which Kingdom Does Fusarium Redolens Belong To

Introduction

Corylus avellana L. (hazelnut) is a shrub species belonging to the Betulaceae family. Italy is the second largest hazelnut producer in the world, with an average production of about 140,000 t/year spread among four regions (Campania, Latium, Sicily, and Piedmont), behind Turkey (ISTAT1, FAOstat Agriculture Data2). In the last decades, a fruit rot causing considerable yield losses has been observed and described as a new disease. The symptomatic fruits were characterized by the presence of brown-grayish spots at the bottom of the nuts progressing upward to the apex, and necrotic patches on the bracts and, less often, on the petioles (Belisario and Santori, 2009). Based on these symptoms, the disease has been named nut gray necrosis (NGN) and associated with Fusarium lateritium Nees [Gibberella baccata (Wallr.) Sacc.] as its causal agent (Santori et al., 2010; Vitale et al., 2011). Fusarium is a large cosmopolitan genus of filamentous ascomycetes fungi, ranked as one of the most economically destructive and species-rich groups in the world, including plant pathogens, saprophytes, and endophytes species, among others (O’Donnell et al., 2013, 2015). Among the numerous species, F. lateritium has been reported on numerous hosts, including woody fruit trees as well as shrubs and herbaceous plants, where it could induce wilting, tip or branch dieback, and cankers. F. lateritium has also been reported as the causal agent of twig canker on hazelnut, and fruit rot on walnut (Wollenweber, 1931) and olive (Elia, 1964). Several pathogenicity tests were conducted, supporting the involvement of this fungus in the NGN disease and twig canker of hazelnut (Belisario and Santori, 2009).

In late summer 2019, a survey on the health status of a hazelnut orchard located in the Tuscia area (the province of Viterbo, Latium, Italy) was carried out in order to combine an agronomic evaluation of the state of the field approach with a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system for the precision farming of orchards. Nuts showing NGN symptoms were found and collected for further laboratory analysis and molecular characterization.

Aiming to increase knowledge about this fungal pathogen, the genome of one fungal strain isolated from a typical NGN diseased nut was sequenced using both long- and short-reads sequencing technologies. The resulting genome when compared with other available Fusarium genomes showed that, despite a morphological similarity with F. lateritium, this isolate is related to the F. tricinctum species complex rather than to the F. lateritium one. Thus, this study aims to provide new insights about the complexity of Fusarium species that infect tissues and fruits of hazelnut and to better understand the genetics behind the pathogenic mechanisms of this fungal strain. The new information achieved represents the basis for a better focused and effective control strategy of this disease.

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