Fusarium and Neocosmospora Species Associated with the Decline of Metasequoia glyptostroboides in China

• Published in: Plant disease
• Main Authors: Liu, Duanchong, Zhao, Wenxia, Xia, Jianping, Cai, Sanshan, Huai, Wen-Xia, Zhang, Ru-Bin, Li, Bin, Peng, Hualan, Zhang, Shijun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 24.10.2024
• Subjects: Neocosmospora; Phytophthora acerina; pathogenicity; Fusarium reticulatum; Metasequoia glyptostroboides; F. fujikuroi
• ISSN: 0191-2917
• DOI: 10.1094/PDIS-01-24-0201-RE

During surveys conducted in 2020, severe symptoms associated with death and decline were observed on >30-year-old (Chinese redwood) trees in the shelter-forests along Yangtze River in Jingzhou city, Hubei province, China. A previous study showed that was one of the causal agents of the decline of the Chinese redwood. In this study, a total of 147 fungal isolates were obtained from the diseased roots and xylem of trunks of declining trees. Through morphology and multi-locus phylogenetic analysis, these isolates were identified as eight species belonging to the genera and including , , , ， , , , and . Single inoculation and co-inoculation with assays of these and species were then performed to test pathogenicity on three-year-old seedlings of . Lesions (i.e., on seedling stems) caused by species of the genera and were smaller than those caused by . Co-inoculation of and , as well as the co-inoculation of and caused larger lesions than inoculations with alone. All these species of and were shown to have the potential to be pathogenic to . This study provided evidence that the decline of in Jingzhou is a disease complex.