Occurrence and Characterization of Leaf Spot Caused by Septoria melissae on Lemon Balm in Korea

Seon-Ah Yang; In-Young Choi; Ho-Jong Ju; Kui-Jae Lee; Victor Galea; Hyeon-Dong Shin

doi:10.1080/12298093.2020.1830925

Occurrence and Characterization of Leaf Spot Caused by Septoria melissae on Lemon Balm in Korea

Mycobiology. 2020 Oct 22;48(6):495-500. doi: 10.1080/12298093.2020.1830925.

Authors

Seon-Ah Yang¹, In-Young Choi¹, Ho-Jong Ju¹, Kui-Jae Lee², Victor Galea³, Hyeon-Dong Shin⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Agricultural Biology, Jeonbuk National University, Jeonju, Korea.
² Division of Biotechnology, College of Environmental and Bioresource Sciences, Jeonbuk National University, Iksan, Korea.
³ School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, The University of Queensland, Queensland, Australia.
⁴ Division of Environmental Science and Ecological Engineering, Korea University, Seoul, Korea.

Abstract

Leaf spot on lemon balm is frequently observed in Korea, causing considerable damage to crops. In 2014 and 2015, the occurrence of leaf spot was observed in several production greenhouses at Suwon, Gongju, and Namwon in Korea. Symptoms on lower leaves initially developed as small, distinct, discolored lesions, which enlarged progressively turning into dark brown, angular spots surrounded by purplish-brown margins. Based on the morphological characteristics and sequence analysis of actin (ACT), translation elongation factor 1-alpha (EF-1α), internal transcribed spacer (ITS), 28S nrDNA (LSU), and RNA polymerase II second largest subunit (RPB2), the fungus associated with the lemon balm leaf spot was determined as Septoria melissae. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of lemon balm leaf spot caused by S. melissae in Asia as well as in Korea.

Keywords: First report; Melissa officinalis; Septoria melissae; medicinal plant; multigene phylogenetic analysis.