Precipitation impacts dissemination of three sooty blotch and flyspeck taxa on apple fruit

The spatial dissemination of three prevalent taxa of sooty blotch and flyspeck (SBFS) fungi under several levels of precipitation was compared during 2015 and 2016 in an Iowa apple orchard. Overhead irrigation was used to supplement ambient precipitation in order to insure SBFS spore dissemination and colony development. There were five irrigation levels, involving 1-min-long periods of irrigation that were imposed either once or twice per hour at intervals of 3, 6, or 12 h, as well as a nonirrigated control. Preselected apple fruit were inoculated with one of the three SBFS taxa to serve as sources of inoculum. Dissemination from these inoculated apple fruit was assessed at harvest by counting SBFS colonies on watersprayed and nontreated fruit. As a further control, additional fruit were enclosed in fruit bags throughout the fruit development period. In both 2015 and 2016, the number of colonies of the SBFS fungus Peltaster gemmifer per apple increased sharply as the duration of irrigation increased, whereas the number of colonies of Microcyclosporella mali increased to a lesser extent and Stomiopeltis sp. RS1 showed no increase. In 2015, the linear relationship between the duration of irrigation-imposed precipitation levels and the number of colonies on the water-sprayed apple fruit was similar for P. gemmifer (slope = 0.09), Stomiopeltis sp. RS1 (slope = 0.07), and Microcyclosporella mali (slope = 0.13); whereas, in 2016, the slope was higher for P. gemmifer (0.28) than for Stomiopeltis sp. RS1 (-0.09) or M. mali (0.06). The results indicated that dissemination of P. gemmifer increased sharply in response to increased irrigationimposed precipitation, and that dissemination patterns differed considerably among the three SBFS taxa. The apparent advantage of P. gemmifer in precipitation-triggered dissemination may stem from its ability to produce spores rapidly by budding. To our knowledge, this is the first article to assess splash dispersal by SBFS fungi in the field and the first to document taxon-specific patterns of dissemination in this pathogen complex.