Canola/rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) is a new crop in Iran, grown since 1996. In 2006, 180,000 ha were planted. During the same year, leaf and upper stem lesions (3) were observed on cv. Hyola 401 at rosette and flowering stages in the Gorgan Province in northern Iran. Field disease incidence ranged from 1 to 40%. Several isolates from stem lesions were sent to the Department of Plant Science, Blackleg Research Lab, University of Manitoba, Canada from the Agricultural and Natural Resources Research Center of Golestan Province of Iran for pathogenicity group identification. The blackleg pathogen is divided into several pathogenicity groups on the basis of phenotypic interaction (IP) of isolates on differential cvs. Westar, Glacier, and Quinta. Isolates PG2, PG3, PG4, and PGT are highly virulent, but PG1, which recently has been named Leptosphaeria biglobosa (2), is weakly virulent. Colonies of the blackleg pathogen were reisolated from their original medium, potato dextrose agar, and grown onV8 agar medium and incubated under light for 2 weeks. Pure cultures of the pathogen were then characterized by colony morphology, pycnidia, and measurement and microscopic observation of pycnidio-spores. Fungal colonies formed with concentric rings containing pycnidia with pink ooze on V8 agar. Pycnidia were globose and as much as 200 μ 200 μm. They had a prominent beak on the ascomata that was enlarged, cylindrical, central, terete, erect, and 150 to 200 × 100 μm. Pycnidiospores were cylindrical, straight, 4 to 5 × 2 μm, and hyaline (2). To identify the pathogenicity group of the Iranian isolates, pycnidiospores were harvested from single-spore cultures after 14 days of incubation under continuous cool-white fluorescent light (1). One-week-old cotyledons from the differential cvs. Westar, Glacier, and Quinta were inoculated with pycnidiospore suspension concentration of 2 × 107 spores per ml of the four Iranian isolates. Each cotyledon lobe was punctured with forceps and inoculated with a 10-μl droplet of spore suspension. Disease evaluations were made 10 to 14 days after inoculation using a 0 to 9 rating scale. Inoculations were repeated twice with identical results yielding only the PG1 type reaction. To our knowledge, this is the first report of the presence of L. biglobosa (PG1; B-type) on canola in Iran. Differential testing fulfilled Koch's postulates. L. biglobosa seems to be less damaging compared with L. maculans, but severe phoma stem lesion epidemics have been associated with the L. biglobosa in Poland (3). The importance of this weakly virulent pathogen, whenever the relative humidity increases, has been demonstrated in greenhouse conditions (A. El-Hadrami, W. G. D. Fernando, and F. Daayf, unpublished data). Since the relative humidity in northern Iran is high, an epidemic may occur if appropriate management practices are not utilized to minimize inoculum levels.
References: (1) W. G. D. Fernando and Y. Chen. Plant Dis. 87:1268, 2003. (2) R. A. Shoemaker and H. Brun. Can. J. Bot. 79:412, 2003. (3) J. S.West et al. Plant Pathol. 48:161, 2001.
