First report of Phyllactinia chubutiana causing powdery mildew on Goji berry plants ( Lycium barbarum and L. chinense ) in the United States

• Published in: Plant disease
• Main Authors: Elfar, Karina, Bustamante, Marcelo I, Rooney-Latham, Suzanne, Eskalen, Akif, Miller, Tom
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 01.12.2023
• Subjects: superfood; California; Oidium insolitum; Foliar disease; Ovulariopsis insolita
• ISSN: 0191-2917
• DOI: 10.1094/PDIS-10-22-2432-PDN

Goji berries, both , and , are native to Asia and have been highly valued for food and medicinal purposes for more than 2,000 years (Wetters et al. 2018). These species are difficult to distinguish due to the extensive cultivar development of the former and the plasticity of the latter's phenotypes. During the summers (from July to September) of 2021 and 2022, powdery mildew was observed in Goji berry plants ( and ) in both community and residential gardens, in Yolo Co., California. Disease severity varied between 30 and 100% of infected leaves per plant. Host identity was confirmed by phylogenetic analysis using sequences of the intergenic region (Wetters et al. 2018). Powdery mildew was characterized by the presence of white fungal colonies on both sides of the leaves and the fruit sepals. Colorless adhesive tape mounts of the fungal structures were examined in drops of 3% KOH. Epidermal strips of infected leaves were peeled off for analysis of the mycelia. Hyphae were both external and internal, hyaline, septate, branched, smooth, and 2.5 to 5.8 (4.3) µm wide (n = 50). Appressoria were nipple-shaped to irregularly branched and solitary or opposite in pairs. Conidiophores were hyaline, erect, and simple. Foot cells were cylindrical, straight, 13.1 to 48.9 (29.8) × 5.0 to 8.2 (6.8) µm (n = 20), followed by 0 to 2 cells. Conidia lacked fibrosin bodies, were borne singly, unicellular, hyaline, and ellipsoid when young. Mature conidia were either cylindrical or slightly centrally constricted to dumb-bell-like, and 36.2 to 51.8 (44.9) × 15.1 to 22.0 (18.9) µm (n = 50), with conspicuous subterminal protuberances. Germ tubes were subterminal, either short with multilobate apex or moderately long with a simple end. Chasmothecia were not observed. Morphologically the fungus matched the description of Havryl., S. Takam. & U. Braun (Braun and Cook, 2012). The pathogen identity was further confirmed by amplifying and sequencing the rDNA internal transcribed spacer (ITS) and the 28S rDNA gene using the primer pairs ITS1/ITS4 (White et al. 1990) and PM3/TW14 (Takamatsu and Kano 2001, Mori et al. 2000). The resulting sequences (GenBank OP434568 to OP434569; and OP410969 to OP410970) were compared with the NCBI database using BLAST, showing 99% similarity to the ex-type isolate of (BCRU 4634, GenBank AB243690). Maximum parsimony phylogenetic analysis clustered our isolates with reference sequences of from various hosts deposited in GenBank. Pathogenicity was confirmed by inoculating two two-year-old potted plants. Four leaves per plant were surface disinfected (75% ethanol, 30 s) before gently rubbing powdery mildew infected leaves onto healthy leaves. Healthy leaves were used for mock inoculations. All plants were maintained in a growth chamber at 22°C and 80% relative humidity (RH) for five days and then 60% RH thereafter. Inoculated leaves developed powdery mildew symptoms after 28 days, and colonies were confirmed by morphology, hence fulfilling Koch's postulates. Control leaves remained symptomless. (= , ) was first described on in Argentina (Braun et al. 2000, Havrylenko et al. 2006), and later reported on in China (Wang Yan et al. 2016). To our knowledge, this is the first report of causing powdery mildew on and in the United States, which provides crucial information for developing effective strategies to monitor and control this newly described disease.