Abstract: Shot hole caused by Wilsonomyces carpophilus is one of the main constraints to prune fruit production in Iran particularly in Khorasan Razavi province. Causing foliage shot hole in spring and early summer; fruit-spotting and cankers on limbs and twigs during autumn rains. The fungus was isolated from the lesions of twigs and was purified on PDA. The pathogenicity and virulence on detached twigs of six different stone fruit tree species was examined in vitro. The virulence of isolates as measured by lesion length was significantly different among the isolates obtained from different host species. In contrast to other hosts, sour cherry did not show any canker on shoots or twigs and disease progress was just as tissue colonization by the fungus hyphae. Mean comparison was carried out with LSD test (α = 0.05) and did not have any significant difference. The most sensitivity of shoots to infection was related to peach (MS = 12.467) and located at A group among stone fruit species. The results of bud and shoot evaluations indicated that the fungus overwinters as hyphae and conidia in buds, and in the form of hyphae as well as thick-walled globular chlamydospore in twigs. Additionally, viability of recovered conidia ranged from 33 to 90% throughout the dormant season. A better understanding of disease life cycle leading to improved monitoring of the fungal disease will reduce fungicide applications.

Background Shot hole is one of the common fungal diseases in stone fruits viz., peach, plum, apricot and cherry, and almond in nuts, and is caused by Wilsonomyces carpophilus. Our previous research found that both disease incidence and severity is significantly decreased after fungicide application. The pathogenicity studies proved the wide host range of the pathogen infecting all stone fruits and almond among nut crops, however, the mechanisms underlying the host-pathogen interaction was still limited. Additionally, the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based molecular detection of the pathogen infecting different stone fruits using simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers was also unknown due to the unavailability of pathogen genome. Methods and Results We examined the Wilsonomyces carpophilus morphology, pathology, and genomics. Whole genome sequencing of the W. carpophilus was carried out by Illumina HiSeq and PacBio next generation sequencing (NGS) plate-forms by hybrid assembly. Mol...

Background The conidial Ascomycota fungus Wilsonomyces carpophilus causing shot hole of stone fruits is a major constrain in the production of stone fruits worldwide. Shot hole disease symptoms appear on leaves, fruits, and twigs. Successful isolation of the pathogen from different hosts on synthetic culture medium is a time consuming and tedious procedure for identification of the pathogen based on morpho-cultural characterization. Methods and Results The current research was carried out to develop a successful detection protocol for shot hole disease of stone fruits viz., peach, plum, apricot, cherry and almond using PCR based SSR markers that were designed from the Wilsonomyces carpophilus genome using Genome-wide Microsatellite Analysing Tool package (GMATA) software to detect the pathogen at early stages. Diseased leaf samples of stone fruits were collected and the pathogen isolated on potato dextrose agar (PDA) medium and maintained on Asthana and Hawkers’ medium. For detectio...

The present study was designed to determine the fungal post-harvest pathogens of peach from fruit markets of Dhok kala khan, Raja Bazaar and Mandi Mor located in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. During the year 2016-17, 36 fruits from were collected randomly and morphological characterization of fungal isolates confirmed that Botrytis cineria, Aspergillus niger, Rhizopus stolinifer and M. piriformis are causing post-harvest rot of peach. Among all these, R. stolinifer was found to be most prevalent pathogen. The essential oil of brassica, taramira and ginger were used for management of R. stolinifer with 0.05%, 0.5% and 5% concentration. Taramira oil at 5% concentration resisted the growth of R. stolinifer after 3 and 5 days while only 0.1 mm growth was recorded after 7 days.

Apples are the main horticultural crops grown in West Azarbaijan province of Iran. In recent surveys of apple orchards in Urmia and Miyandoab, West Azarbaijan Province, symptoms including branch and twig bark cracks, cankers, dieback and tree decline were commonly seen. Isolation of the fungi from cracked and cankered branches yielded fungal isolates with typical characteristics of the genera Paecilomyces and Paramyrothecium. Based on combination of morphological characteristics and sequence data obtained from ITS-rDNA and βtubulin gene sequences for Paecilomyces isolates and ITS-rDNA region for Paramyrothecium isolates, they were identified as Paecilomyces formosus and Paramyrothecium foliicola. Results of the pathogenicity tests on detached shoots of ‘Golden Delicious’ and ‘Red Delicious’ cultivars showed that isolates of P. formosus were pathogenic only on ‘Red Delicious’ cultivar, but Pa. foliicola isolates were pathogenic on both cultivars and showed symptoms of infection. Reis...

Endophytic fungi constitute a remarkable multifarious group of microorganisms live within plants tissues without causing any obvious negative effect. Endophytic fungi have been found in every plant species examined to date. During an investigation on endophytic fungi, 123 fungal isolates were obtained from healthy twigs and leaves of cherry (Prunus avium) and sour cherry (P. cerasus) trees in Iran. The isolates identified based on sequence data of 18S rDNA (SSU) region, as well as morphological and cultural features. As a result, four species namely Coniothyrium olivaceum, Collophora paarla, Sarocladium strictum and Quambalaria cyanescens identified. All these identified species are new reports as endophytic fungi from P. cerasus and P. avium in the world. Among them, Collophora paarla and Quambalaria cyanescens are new taxa for the mycobiota of Iran.

Wilsonomyces carpophilus is a necrotrophic plant pathogenic fungus with a wide host range infecting all stone fruits such as peach, plum, apricot and cherry, and almonds among the nut crops. Necrotrophs are more devastating with a complex pathogenicity mechanism and least known effector repositories. Here, we report a 29.9 megabase draft genome assembly of W. carpophilus. We explored the hybrid technology of Illumina HiSeq and PacBio sequencing technologies to get the unbiased results of sequence reads. We aligned short Illumina reads against the long PacBio reads. A total of 10,901 protein-coding genes were predicted that includes varied set of genes such as HET genes, cytochrome-p450 genes, kinases etc. We mined 2851 simple sequence repeats (SSRs) in the genome assembly. We also predicted the diverse inventory of secretory proteins, transporters, primary and secondary metabolic enzymes. A total of 225 secreted proteins, hydrolases, polysaccharide-degrading enzymes, esterolytic, li...