Phytoparasitica (2011) 39:403405 DOI 10.

1007/s12600-011-0171-7

First report of Coniella granati causing pomegranate fruit rot in Israel

Edna Levy & Genya Elkind & Ruth Ben-Arie & I. S. Ben-Zeev

Received: 18 November 2010 / Accepted: 4 May 2011 / Published online: 1 June 2011 # Springer Science+Business Media BV 2011

Abstract Pomegranate fruit rot, caused by Coniella granati, is reported for the first time in Israel in 2010, following an interception of contaminated grafting material imported in 2006. Keywords Contaminated grafting material . Quarantine interception

Pomegranate cultivation has increased considerably in Israel during the last decade. A stock of pomegranate twigs imported from India as grafting material was diagnosed with Coniella granati while in quarantine, in 2006 (Ben-Zeev et al. 2008; links to PPIS

E. Levy : G. Elkind : I. S. Ben-Zeev (*) Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Plant Protection and Inspection Services (PPIS), Bet Dagan 50250, Israel e-mail: israelb@moag.gov.il; ibzeev@yahoo.com R. Ben-Arie Fruit Storage Research Laboratory, Qiryat Shemona 10200, Israel

website). The contaminated grafting material was promptly destroyed by autoclaving. Coniella granati has been reported in the Eastern Mediterranean region, in Turkey (Yildiz and Karaca 1973), Greece (Tziros and TzavellaKlonari 2008) and Cyprus (GBIF network 2010; Georghiou and Papadopoulos 1957), but not in Israel, thus making it, by default, a quarantine disease. The quarantine interception mentioned above, along with reports of occurrence in the vicinity, prompted the authors to look for this pathogen in Israeli pomegranate orchards. Our survey in central and southern Israel did not result in any findings. Cultures of C. granati were obtained from the rind of fruit which decayed in cooled storage. The rotten fruits belonged to cv. PG116-17 (Hershkowitz) from an unidentified orchard and to cv. Wonderful from Yesod HaMaala, both in the Upper Galilee. Pycnidia, produced on strength PDA, were dark brown, ranging from 100400 m in diameter (Figs. 1, 2). Conidia were pale brown in mass, but still staining with cotton-blue (Figs. 2, 3), fusiform, straight or slightly curved, 7.516.02.5 4.3 m, close to the dimensions given by Sutton (1980): 1015 2.53.5 m. The postharvest rot caused by this fungus usually started at or near the fruits flower end (Fig. 4).

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Phytoparasitica (2011) 39:403405

Fig. 1 Coniella granati single-spore culture isolated on PDA from pomegranate cv. Wonderful. Plate diameter: 90 mm, photographed over green background. Single and clustered pycnidia visible in the colony center are ~300 to ~500 m in diameter

Fig. 3 Pycnidium of Coniella granati from single-spore PDA culture, squashed in a cotton-blue stained slide, with conidia oozing out. Bar=50 m

A pathogenicity test was carried out on ripe fruits, cv. Wonderful. Ten l of a spore suspension of 10 6 spores ml 1 were pipetted into three equidistant wounds made with a 2-mm nail to a depth of 5 mm, on each of three fruits. The same

suspension was pipetted on the stamens of three additional fruits, without wounding. Three control fruits were wounded and left uninoculated. Decay became visible on the wound-inoculated fruits only, 5 days post inoculation, at 20C and ca 95% r.h. C. granati cultures were reisolated from the rind of inoculated fruit. It is worth mentioning that the 2007 record of C. granati in Israel (GBIF network, 2010) is not substantiated in any way and we consider it as premature.

Fig. 2 Coniella granati pycnidia in single-spore culture reisolated after pathogenicity test. White arrows point at white, young pycnidia; black arrows point at dark-brown, mature pycnidia; brown arrows (middle) point at brown masses of conidia extruded from mature pycnidia

Fig. 4 Pomegranate displaying Coniella granati postharvest rot in cooled storage. Note dark pycnidia surrounded by white mycelium. Cv. Wonderful from Yesod HaMaala, harvested 2010

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405 ppis/plant_disease_gallery/D_S_W_S/Coniella_granati. htm Sutton, B. C. (1980). 43. CONIELLA Hohn. In The CoelomycetesFungi imperfecti with pycnidia, acervuli and stromata (pp. 417422). Kew, Surrey, UK: Commonwealth Mycological Institute. Tziros, G. T., & Tzavella-Klonari, K. (2008). Pomegranate fruit rot caused by Coniella granati confirmed in Greece. Plant Pathology, 57, 783 [and BSPP New Disease Reports, 16 (on-line publication): http:// www.ndrs.org.uk/article.php?id=016022] Yildiz, M., & Karaca, I. (1973). Trkiyede Coniella granati nin meydana getirdigi nar meyve rklg [Pomegranate rot caused by Coniella granati (Sacc.) Petr. & Syd.] in Turkish. E.. Ziraat Fakltesi Dergisi, 10, 315325.

References
Ben-Zeev, I. S., Elkind, G., & Levy, E. (2008). Interception of three exotic plant diseases (Abstr. 29th Congress Israeli Phytopathological Society). Phytoparasitica, 36, 117. GBIF: Biodiversity occurrence data provided by GBIF network (Accessed through GBIF Data Portal, data.gbif.org, 201011-14). Georghiou, G. P., & Papadopoulos, C. (1957). A second list of Cyprus fungi. Government of Cyprus, Department of Agriculture [(8322), in the USDA fungal database: http://nt.ars-grin.gov/fungaldatabases/fungushost/ new_rptOneLit.cfm?fungRec=8322&thisError=] PPIS. http://www.ppis.moag.gov.il/ppis/plant_disease_gallery/ D_S_W_S/D.Sw_F1.htm; http://www.ppis.moag.gov.il/