First Report of Colletotrichum fioriniae Causing Anthracnose on Persimmon in China.

Persimmons (Diospyros kaki Thunb.) have a longstanding history of cultivation in China. Both aesthetically pleasing and edible, they often symbolize a sweet and fulfilling life. During the summer of 2022, a severe outbreak of anthracnose was observed on the lower leaves of persimmon trees in the National Field Genebank for Persimmon (NFGP), located in Yangling, Shaanxi, China (34°17'42.80″ N, 108°04'08.21″ E). The estimated incidence rate of this disease within the NFGP was approximately 30%. The typical symptoms of the disease included the presence of irregular lesions on leaves, and oval sunken lesions on infected fruit. Under high humidity conditions, pink sticky substances appeared in the affected areas. The presence of numerous lesions led to softening and detachment of persimmon fruit. To identify the causal pathogen, 5 × 5mm samples of the diseased leaves were collected from the interface between the infected and healthy leaves. The leaves were disinfected with 70% alcohol for 20 s, followed by rinsing with sterile water. Subsequently, the leaves were immersed in 1% NaClO for 2 to 3 minutes, rinsed with sterile water three times, dried using sterile absorbent paper, and the leaf samples were then transferred onto potato dextrose agar (PDA) medium, and cultured in 25°C incubators. Once the colony reached a certain size, small pieces of hyphae were extracted from edge and transferred for purification and repeated three times. After being cultured on PDA for 7 days, the colony showed a white spongy surface with a pink-orange center. The conidia displayed a fusiform shape and were transparent, measuring 4.58 to 6.53 μm × 9.27 to 13.11 μm (n=50). The isolates share morphological similarities with Colletotrichum fioriniae. The representative isolate HY-7 was selected for molecular identification. The internal transcribed spacers (ITS) region, chitin synthase (CHS-1), actin (ACT), beta-tubulin 2 (TUB2), and glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) gene were amplified using ITS1/4 (White et al. 1990), CHS-79F/CHS-345R (Carbone & Kohn, 1999), ACT512F/ACT (Carbone & Kohn, 1999), T1/BT2B (Glass & Donaldson 1995, O'Donnell et al., 1997), and GDF/GDR (Templeton et al. 1992), respectively. The generated sequences were deposited at GenBank under accession numbers OR878056 (ITS), OR766019 (CHS-1), OR766021(TUB2), OR766018 (ACT) and OR766020 (GAPDH). BLAST analysis revealed the sequences were 100% identical to C. fioriniae (MH865005 for ITS, JQ948953 for CHS-1, JQ949613 for ACT, JQ949943 for TUB2 and JQ948622 for GAPDH). The morphological characteristics and molecular analyses of the isolate matched the description of C. fioriniae. To fulfill Koch's postulates, the twigs and leaves of 'Fupingjianshi' in four different directions were inoculated without wounding in the field, and 10 healthy fruits were selected for wound inoculation. The concentration of conidia used for inoculation was about 1 × 106 conidia/ml, and sterilized water was used as control. The experiment was replicated three times under the same conditions. One week after inoculation, characteristic symptoms resembling those observed on the leaves of primary diseased persimmon trees appeared on the leaves and fruits. No symptoms were observed on the leaves, twigs and fruits in the control treatment. The pathogen from the artificially infected leaves and fruits were reisolated and identified as C. fiorinae based on morphological and molecular characteristics. Persimmon anthracnose is a common disease in regions where the fruit is grown, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first documented occurrence of C. fioriniae-induced anthracnose on persimmons in China, which should be paid more attentions. This report will help identify disease symptoms in the field and provides a basis for determining the occurrence, distribution, and control of C. fioriniae on persimmon leaves and fruits.