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First Report of Cylindrocladiella parva and C. peruviana Associated with Black-foot Disease of Grapevine in Spain

From 2007 to 2009, Cylindrocladiella-like isolates were recovered from grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) roots with symptoms of black-foot disease in Spain, where the causal agents of this disease have been previously reported as Campylocarpon and Cylindrocarpon species (1,2). Three representative isolates were selected to confirm their identity: CPa1 and CPa2 from Asturias (northern Spain), and CPe523 from Cuenca (central Spain). Isolates were incubated on malt extract agar (MEA) and Spezieller Nährstoffarmer Agar (SNA) with carnation leaves (4) at 25°C for 10 days in darkness. On MEA, colonies developed light brown, cottony mycelium. On SNA, all three isolates produced chlamydospores in chains, and conidia were zero-to one-septate, but CPa1 and CPa2 produced longer conidia (10.4 to 18.9 [15.3] × 1.7 to 3.1 [2.4] μm) than CPe523 (6.4 to 12.3 [9.7] × 1.6 to 3.3 [2.4] μm). A fragment of the beta-tubulin gene from all isolates was sequenced with primers T1 and Bt2b (1) and deposited in GenBank (Accession Nos. JQ693133, JQ693134, and JQ693135). CPa1 and CPa2 showed high similarity (99%) to Cylindrocladiella parva (AY793486) and CPe523 showed high similarity (99%) to C. peruviana (AY793500), which is in agreement with the corresponding morphological features of these species (4). Pathogenicity tests were conducted with inoculum produced on wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) seed soaked for 12 h in 300 ml of distilled water and autoclaved three times. Inoculum was prepared by inoculating two fungal disks (8 mm in diameter) of a 2-week-old culture of each isolate grown on potato dextrose agar to wheat seed and incubation at 25°C for 4 weeks. One-month-old grapevine seedlings were planted individually in 220-cc pots filled with a potting medium of sterilized peat moss and 10 g of inoculum, and grown in the greenhouse at 25°C in a completely randomized design. Controls were inoculated with sterile, noninoculated wheat seed. There were six replicate plants per isolate, with an equal number of controls, and the experiment was repeated once. Symptoms developed in all plants by 20 days post-inoculation and consisted of reduced vigor, necrotic root lesions, and occasionally mortality, all of which resembled the symptoms from grapevines in the field from which the isolates were originally recovered. Mean shoot dry weights of inoculated plants (0.25, 0.16, and 0.28 g for CPa1, Cpa2, and CPa523, respectively) were significantly lower (P < 0.05) than that of the controls (0.74 g). Mean root dry weights of inoculated plants (0.28, 0.16, and 0.29 g for CPa1, Cpa2, and CPa523, respectively) were also significantly lower (P < 0.05) than that of the controls (0.68 g). Isolates recovered from the roots of inoculated plants were identical morphologically and molecularly to C. parva and C. peruviana, thereby satisfying Koch's postulates. No symptoms were observed on the control plants. These Cylindrocladiella spp. have been reported from nurseries or vineyards in South Africa and New Zealand (3). To our knowledge, this is the first report of C. parva and C. peruviana associated with black-foot disease of grapevine in Spain, and in Europe.

References: (1) S. Alaniz et al. Plant Dis. 91:1187, 2007. (2) S. Alaniz et al. Plant Dis. 95:1028, 2011. (3) E. E. Jones et al. Plant Dis. 96:144, 2012. (4) L. Lombard et al. Mycol. Progress DOI 10.1007/s11557-011-0799-1, 2012.