Identity and pathogenicity of some fungi associated with hazelnut (Corylus avellana L.) trunk cankers in Oregon

PLoS One. 2019 Oct 10;14(10):e0223500. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0223500. eCollection 2019.

Abstract

Four fungi isolated from trunks and branches of European hazelnut (Corylus avellana L.) from commercial orchards in the Willamette Valley, Oregon were characterized and pathogenicity was tested on potted hazelnut trees. The acreage of hazelnuts in Oregon has expanded greatly in recent years in response to the availability of Eastern filbert blight resistant cultivars. Fungi were characterized using the BLASTn algorithm and the GenBank database with multiple partial gene sequence(s). If BLASTn and GenBank were not sufficient for species-level identification, then a multilocus sequence analysis (MLSA) was performed. The four pathogens were identified as Diplodia mutilla (Fr.) Mont., Dothiorella omnivora B.T. Linaldeddu, A. Deidda & B. Scanu, Valsa cf. eucalypti Cooke & Harkn., and Diaporthe eres Nitschke. All pathogens but D. omnivora have not been previously reported from European hazelnut in the literature. All four pathogens caused lesions on trunks bare root hazelnut trees cv. 'Jefferson' planted in pots in the greenhouse and fungi were re-isolated from inoculated trees. D. mutilla appeared particularly aggressive in repeated inoculation experiments.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Corylus / microbiology*
  • Fungi / isolation & purification
  • Fungi / pathogenicity*
  • Oregon
  • Phylogeny
  • Plant Diseases / microbiology*
  • Trees / microbiology

Grants and funding

The funding organization acknowledged (Oregon Hazelnut Commission) provided partial summer salary support for NGW. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.