0000000000342487
AUTHOR
A. Chimento
Root and Foot Rot of Lantana Caused by Phytophthora cryptogea
Lantana (Lantana camara L.) is an evergreen shrub in the Verbenaceae. In some countries, this plant has been declared a noxious weed. However, a number of sterile or near-sterile forms are cultivated as attractive flowered potted and garden plants. In early spring 2004, ≈4,000 potted, small trees of lantana grown in a screenhouse in a commercial nursery of ornamentals near Giarre, Sicily, showed symptoms of chlorosis, defoliation, and sudden collapse of the entire plant. These aboveground symptoms were associated with a reduced root system, rot of feeder roots, and brown discoloration of the base of the stem. A Phytophthora sp. was isolated consistently from roots and basal stems of sympto…
A molecular method to assess Phytophthora diversity in environmental samples
Current molecular detection methods for the genus Phytophthora are specific to a few key species rather than the whole genus and this is a recognized weakness of protocols for ecological studies and international plant health legislation. In the present study a molecular approach was developed to detect Phytophthora species in soil and water samples using novel sets of genus-specific primers designed against the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions. Two different rDNA primer sets were tested: one assay amplified a long product including the ITS1, 5.8S and ITS2 regions (LP) and the other a shorter product including the ITS1 only (SP). Both assays specifically amplified products from Phy…
First Report of Phytophthora spp. as Pathogens of Pandorea jasminoides in Italy
In the summer of 2005, approximately 5% of a nursery stock of 12-month-old potted plants of bower vine (Pandorea jasminoides (Lindl.) K. Schum.) in Sicily (Italy) showed wilt, leaf chlorosis, defoliation, root rot, and collapse of the entire plant. Three Phytophthora spp. (20, 50, and 30% of the isolations of the first, second, and third species, respectively) were isolated from rotted roots on BNPRAH selective medium (2). Single-hypha isolates of the first species formed petaloid colonies on potato dextrose agar (PDA) and had an optimum growth temperature of 25°C (9.3 mm/day); on V8 juice agar, they produced uni- and bipapillate, ovoid to limoniform sporangia with mean dimensions of 45 × …