First Report of Neocosmospora mori Causing Root Rot and Stem Blight of Mulberry in Nanzhang, Hubei, China

Mulberry (Morus alba L.) has been cultivated for thousands of years in many temperate regions in East Asia and is commonly used to feed silkworms. In May 2021, 5 to 8% incidence of stem blight on 4-year-old mulberry 'Nongsang 14' was observed in several orchards in Nanzhang County, Hubei Province, China. The roots and stems showed symptoms of vascular discoloration, and the tender new shoots, surrounded by white hyphae, were detached easily. Symptomatic stem tissues (5 mm × 5 mm) were excised from the border between diseased and healthy tissues, surface sterilized in a 75% ethanol solution for 30 s and 2.5% sodium hypochlorite for 1.5 min, washed three times in sterile distilled water, then placed on potato dextrose agar (PDA, 250 g potatoes, 2% dextrose, 1.6% agar), and incubated at 25°C in darkness. Two isolates (Bq2 and Bq3) were subcultured using the single-spore method. On PDA, colonies were cottony, with whitish aerial mycelium and the daily growth rate was 4.25 to 5.50 mm/day at 25°C in darkness. On carnation leaf agar, macroconidia were fusiform with slightly curved apical cells and foot-shaped basal cells, three to five septate, measuring 47.5 to 80.3 × 3.6 to 5.6 μm (average 68.7 × 4.7 μm, n = 30). On spezieller nährstoffarmer agar, microconidia were produced in false heads on monophialides, mostly 0-septate, oval, obovoid, or reniform in shape, measuring 5.1 to 10.7 × 2.7 to 5.3 μm (average 8.5 × 3.3 μm, n = 30). Chlamydospores were 4.9 to 11.0 μm in diameter (average 6.8 μm, n = 30), round shaped, thick-walled, and produced individually or in pairs or in chains. For molecular identification, the ribosomal internal transcribed spacers (ITS), translation elongation factor 1α (EF-1α), 28S large subunit nrDNA (LSU), and calmodulin (CAM) genes were amplified and sequenced with primers ITS1/ITS4 (White et al. 1990), EF1H/EF2T (O'Donnell et al. 1998), LR0R/LR5 ( Vilgalys and Hester 1990; Vilgalys and Sun 1994), and CL1/CL2A (Geiser et al. 2021; Wang et al. 2011), respectively. The sequences were deposited in GenBank (OQ711943-OQ711944 for ITS, OQ722438- Q722439 for EF-1α, OQ722441-OQ722442 for CAM, and OR116152-OR116153 for LSU). A maximum-likelihood phylogenetic analysis based on multilocus sequences was conducted using MEGA7, which showed that the two isolates grouped into a clade with Neocosmospora mori (previously Fusarium solani species complex) supported by a high bootstrap value (85%), and hence, they were identified as N. mori based on morphological and molecular analyses (Brooks et al. 2022; Crous et al. 2021; Lombard et al. 2015; Zeng and Zhuang 2023). To complete Koch's postulates, three healthy 2-month-old seedlings grown in sterile peat mix were removed from pots and the roots were washed in sterile water. Each plant was inoculated by dipping wounded and unwounded roots in a spore suspension (1 × 107 conidia/ml) for 20 min, and then 10 mL of the spore suspension was poured over the roots of each seedling after transplanting. Three plants were treated with sterilized water as a control. The tested plants were then kept in a plastic box containing sterile water and incubated at 25°C in a 12 h/12 h light/dark cycle. The pathogenicity assay was repeated three times for each isolate. Root and stem blight was observed 10 days after inoculation, while the control plants were asymptomatic. Furthermore, fungi with morphological characteristics of N. mori were only reisolated from the symptomatic stems and sequences of LSU matched those of isolates Bq2 and Bq3. This pathogen has been reported previously causing stem blight on mulberry trees in Japan and South Korea (Sandoval-Denis et al. 2019), but to our knowledge, this is the first report of N. mori causing root rot and stem blight of mulberry in China. This report will facilitate the development of effective control strategies for the disease.