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Severe wilt with spots and/or leaf and stem blight were found on a scrophulariaceous flowering plant, Nemesia strumosa, grown in Kagawa Prefecture, Japan, in February 1999. Wilted plants had numerous lesions and died early. A mitosporic fungus isolated repeatedly from the diseased plants was identified as Colletotrichum fuscum and was demonstrated to cause the disease. N. strumosa is a new host for C. fuscum, which has been known to attack foxglove ( Digitalis spp.). The present disease was named “anthracnose of N. strumosa” as a new disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In October 1998, a disease causing mainly foliar necrotic lesions was found on African marigold ( Tagetes erecta) and French marigold ( T. patula) grown in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. Similar lesions also developed on stems and flowers, resulting in early blight of the affected organs. Plants with numerous lesions withered rapidly. A mitosporic fungus isolated repeatedly from the diseased plants was identified as Alternaria tagetica and demonstrated to cause the disease. The disease, as well as the fungus, is new to Japan. We propose the name “hanten-byô”, which means leaf spot in Japanese, for this disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2326 nucleotides of the 3′-terminal region of Carnation vein mottle virus (CVMV) RNA, which included part of the nuclear inclusion b gene, the complete coat protein (CP) gene and the entire 3′-noncoding region (3′-NCR) were determined. The region encoding the CP gene is 843 nucleotides long and the deduced protein consists of 280 amino acids. A search of the EMBL and PIR databases showed that the amino acid sequence of CVMV CP most resembled that of Plum pox virus with a similarity of 67.9%. The 3′-NCR of CVMV RNA is 541 nucleotides long, second longest in the genus Potyvirus. These results indicate that CVMV is closely related to Plum pox virus but is a distinct species in the genus Potyvirus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]