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First Report of White Leaf Spot Caused by Pseudocercosporella capsellae on Brassica juncea in Australia

Brassica juncea (L.) Czern & Coss (mustard) has potential as a more drought-tolerant oilseed crop than the Brassica napus, and the first two canola-quality B. juncea cultivars will be sown as large strip trials across Australia in 2005. This will allow commercial evaluation of oil and meal quality and for seed multiplication for the commercial release Australia-wide in 2006. Inspection of experimental B. juncea field plantings at Beverley (32°6′30″S, 116°55′22″E), and Wongan Hills (30°50′32″S, 116°43′33″E), Western Australia in September 2004 indicated the occurrence of extensive leaf spotting during B. juncea flowering. Symptoms of this disease included as many as 15 or more grayish white-to-brownish spot lesions per leaf, often with a distinct brown margin. Some elongate grayish stem lesions were also observed as reported earlier for B. napus oilseed rape (1). When affected materials were incubated in moist chambers for 48 h, abundant conidia typical of Pseudocercosporella capsellae (Ellis & Everh.) Deighton were observed that matched the descriptions of conidia given by Deighton (2) and those on B. napus in Western Australia (1). Five single-spore cultures from lesions were grown on water agar (WA) where the colonies characteristically produced purple-pink pigment in the agar after 2 weeks growth in an incubator maintained at 20°C with a 12-h photoperiod (3). Since agar cultures of P. capsellae rarely produce conidia (3), this observation helped with the verification of the cultures. Mycelial inoculum from these cultures was used to inoculate cotyledons of 50 7-day-old plants of B. juncea to satisfy Koch's postulates. Small pieces of mycelia were teased out from the surface of the growing margin of potato dextrose agar (PDA) cultures and inoculated onto both lobes of each cotyledon and plants incubated in a 100% humidity chamber for 48 h within a controlled environment room maintained at 20/15°C (day/night) with a 12-h photoperiod. After 2 weeks, lesions 5 to 8 mm in diameter were observed on the cotyledons. There were no symptoms on control plants that were treated with water only. Lesions on infected cotyledons incubated on moist filter paper for 24 h produced abundant cylindrical conidia showing 2 to 3 septa measuring 42.9 to 71.4 μm long and 2.9 to 3.1 μm wide. Single-spore isolations from these conidia produced typical P. capsellae colonies showing purple-pink pigments in WA, and dark, compacted, and slow-growing colonies with a dentate margin on PDA. White leaf spot caused by P. capsellae is an important disease of crucifers worldwide, but to our knowledge, this is the first report of P. capsellae on B. juncea in Australia. In Western Australia, P. capsellae occurs on B. napus oilseed rape (1) and in 1956, 1984, and 1987, it was recorded on B. rapa, B. oleracea, and B. chinensis, respectively (4), and on the same range of Brassica hosts in other regions of Australia.

References: (1) M. J. Barbetti and K. Sivasithamparam. Aust. Plant Pathol.10:43, 1981. (2) F. C. Deighton. Commonw. Mycol. Inst. Mycol. Pap. 133:42, 1973. (3) S. T. Koike. Plant Dis. 80:960, 1996. (4) R. G. Shivas. J. R. Soc. West. Aust. 72:1, 1989.