DisplayTitle

Mango Malformation Disease and the Associated Fusarium Species

First author: Programme on Mycotoxins and Experimental Carcinogenesis (PROMEC), Medical Research Council, P.O. Box 19070, Tygerberg 7505, South Africa; second author: Tropical Research and Education Center, University of Florida, Homestead 33031; third author: DST/NRF Centre of Excellence in Tree Health Biotechnology, Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI), University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002, South Africa; and fourth and fifth authors: Department of Genetics and Department of Microbiology and Plant Pathology, respectively, FABI, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002, South Africa

Mango malformation disease (MMD) occurs in Asia, Africa, and the Americas and was first reported in India in 1891. The vegetative form of MMD was first reproduced in 1966 with Fusarium moniliforme and the floral form with isolates of F. moniliforme var. subglutinans from both vegetative shoots and floral tissue. The fungi were subsequently recognized as F. subglutinans. In 2002, a new species, F. mangiferae, was established based on nuclear and mitochondrial DNA sequences; it included strains of F. subglutinans from Egypt, Florida, Israel, Malaysia, and South Africa, some of which had been shown to cause MMD by artificial inoculation. At least three additional taxa have been associated with MMD: F. sterilihyphosum from Brazil and South Africa, and Fusarium sp. nov. and F. proliferatum (teleomorph: Gibberella intermedia) from Malaysia. To date, Koch's postulates have not been completed with them. In the future, gene sequencing will be essential to identify the Fusarium spp. that are associated with MMD. Work remains to be done on the morphology, sexual compatibility, pathogenicity, and toxigenicity of these taxa.

Additional keywords: G. fujikuroi species complex, mating population, vegetative compatibility group.