Grovesinia moricola occurring on Parthenocissus tricuspidata

Hyeon-Dong Shin^1,* Young-Joon Choi² Sun-Hee Hong³ Yong-Ho Lee³

¹Division of Environmental Science and Ecological Engineering, Korea University, Seoul 02841, Korea
²Department of Biology, Kunsan National University, Gunsan 54150, Korea
³Department of Plant and Environmental Science, Hankyong National University, Anseong 17579, Korea

Abstract

Between August and September 2017, zonate leaf spots with severe defoliation were observed on Parthenocissus tricuspidata in Gimcheon, Korea. The initial symptoms included water-soaked, gray to grayish brown, circular or irregular-shaped leaf spots. As the disease progressed, the spots enlarged, coalesced, and became cream-colored with characteristic target-shaped rings, leading to leaf blight and premature defoliation. Based on cultural and morphological characteristics, the fungus associated with the symptoms was identified as Grovesinia moricola. The identity of this fungus was confirmed by analyzing sequences of the internal transcribed spacer region of ribosomal DNA. The pathogenicity of the isolate was demonstrated by artificial inoculation. To our knowledge, this is the first report of G. moricola occurring on P. tricuspidata globally as well as in Korea.

Figures & Tables

Fig. 1. occurring on causing zonate leaf spots. (A) Symptoms on leaves of . (B) White sporophores (arrow) on the abaxial surface of the lesion. Yellow arrows indicate sporophores. (C, D) Sporophores. (E) Globose cells. (F) One-week-old colonies of on potato dextrose agar at 15°C.