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Blue mold caused by Penicillium species is a major fungal disease threatening the viticulture industry in Pakistan, responsible for deteriorating the quality of grapes during handling, transportation, and distribution. Identification-based approaches of Penicillium species provide a better strategy on accurate diagnosis and effective management. In this study, 13 isolates were recovered from symptomatic grape bunches at five main fruit markets of Rawalpindi district, Punjab province. Based on morphological data and multi-loci phylogenetic analysis, the isolates were identified as two distinct species viz. Penicillium expansum (eight isolates) and Penicillium crustosum (five isolates). Meanwhile, the pathogenicity test of Penicillium isolates presented by the inoculation of grape bunches showed various degrees of severity. For improving the fruit quality and eliminating the needs of synthetic fungicides, botanicals such as thyme (Thymus vulgaris L.), fennel (Foeniculum vulgare L.), garlic (Allium sativum L.), ginger (Zingiber officinale L.), and carum (Carum capticum L.) essential oils (EOs) at concentrations of 0.6, 0.9, 1.2, and 1.5 mg/mL were evaluated. In vitro studies indicated that thyme EO showed a highly significant reduction of fungal growth. Furthermore, the experiments related to reducing the decay development and average weight loss percentage of grapes revealed similar findings. Based on the results of this study, it is recommended that thyme EO can be used as an eco-friendly botanical fungicide against Penicillium spp. causing blue mold disease.

Postharvest fungal rots are a continuous threat to perishable fruits worldwide. Fungal contamination is a significant factor affecting quality of peaches and resulting decline in their quantity. Postharvest health of peaches is of major concern for producers, consumers, marketers, and food industries globally. Early specie level detection of these deteriorating fungal rots is extremely important to adopt timely preventive measures and enhance shelf-life of peaches. In present study five fungal phytopathogenic rots were detected from peaches and identified based on molecular characterization using ITS universal fungal primers, EF-1a and ß-tubulin (benA). Multi-locus characterization revealed fungal rots viz; Fusarium sporotrichioides, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus flavus, Penicillium chrysogenum and Cladosporium pseudocladosporioides respectively. Phylogenetic tree was constructed in MEGAX software using Neighbour-Joining Method and 1000 bootstrap replicates were selected to represent the evolutionary history of the taxa analyzed. Prior to management of various fungal rots, their accurate diagnosis is compulsory. Our results are significant in developing opportune control strategies from the field to storage hence reducing qualitative and quantitative losses and to enhance shelf-life of peaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Okra yellow vein mosaic virus (OYVMV) is vectored by sucking insect whitefly into the phloem of the okra plant. It devastates the fruit quality and production if infection started at early growth stages. Commonly, the virus is tried to manage by using chemical insecticides against the whitefly that has adverse effects on the ecosystem. The present study was to explore the non-chemical ways to fight against OYVMV and it vector. The available germplasm consisting of 11 cultivars was sown in augmented design to estimate the level of resistance under natural conditions where no whitefly control measure was used. Based upon the results of disease severity, the cultivars were categorized into highly resistant, resistant, moderately resistant, moderately susceptible, susceptible and highly susceptible; the most effective and highly resistant variety was "Sabz Pari" that showed minimum disease incidence (60.58%) and disease severity (7.72%). A separate experiment was conducted to evaluate the role of plant extracts in the management of OYVMV disease and whitefly where 5 moderately resistant to moderately susceptible varieties were sown. Among the plant extracts applied garlic extract showed more significant results in controlling whitefly (79.23%) and OYVMV transmission (88.27%). It could be concluded that "Sabz Pari" is the most suitable and high yielding okra variety against OYVMV disease and garlic extract could be applied as a best bio-pesticide against sucking insects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus L.) belongs to family Malvaceae and it is a rich source of carbohydrates, minerals and vitamins. Okra yellow vein mosaic disease (OYVMD) is a devastating biotic stress that is caused by okra yellow vein mosaic virus (OYVMV). This virus is vectored by whitefly (Bemisia tabaci) in a persistent and circulative manner. The current study aims to evaluate the effect of OYVMV on biochemistry of okra plants. An extensive survey about the epidemiology of OYVMD in geographical location of Tehsil Sahiwal, District Sargodha (Punjab Province-Pakistan) on okra fields was conducted. Symptomatic samples subjected to OYVMV confirmation were collected. The healthy and infected samples were processed for determination of biochemical parameters such as total phenolic contents (TPC), total soluble sugars (TSS), and enzymatic antioxidants i.e. superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD) and catalase (CAT) to assess the effect of virus infection on okra plants. TPC were measured by using Folin-Ciocalteu reagent (FCR); TSS determined through anthrone sulfuric acid assay and enzymatic antioxidants by using nitroblue tetrazolium (NBT) solution. The quantity of TPC was decreased while TSS and enzymatic antioxidants increased in diseased plants. TPC in healthy bark and leaves was 0.12 and 0.14 mg/g as compared to 0.2 mg/g of diseased samples. TSS in diseased bark and leaves was 223 and 214 mg/g while enzymatic antioxidants SOD, POD and CAT were also higher. The present study would be helpful in developing environment friendly management approaches by using biochemical profiling of infected plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Potato Virus Y has become the most important virus of Potato crop. Various strains of Potato Virus Y has emerged which are affecting the yield of crop and causing economic losses. Due to a conducive climatic conditions for aphid vector the only viable method for control of PVy is identification and cultivation of resistant varieties. Three year's trial was conducted to identify advance lines and varieties showing resistance towards prevalent strains of Potato Virus Y. PVYO, PVYLD and PVYVN were found most virulent and destructive. No line was found resistant, 3 lines showed moderately resistant response, 5 lines were moderately susceptible, 12 lines was susceptible whiles 2 lines shown highly susceptible response. Incidence and Severity of plants were calculated in field trials and climate data including the averages of maximum temperature, minimum temperature, relative humidity and precipitation was compared with disease development in field trials. Increase in maximum temperature had strong positive correlation with disease severity, while relative humidity and precipitation were negatively correlated with disease development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lentil (Lens culinaris) is an edible pulse crop and belongs to family Leguminosae. Fungal diseases of lentil are the most important biological constraint to productivity. Out of which Botrytis Gray mold causes significant losses. The present investigation is carried out to characterize Botrytis gray mold on lentil crop. During the survey 11 isolates of Botrytis Cinerea causing grey mold disease was collected different lentil growing areas of Pothwar regions. The isolates were identified on the basis of cultural and microscopic features. After 6 days during cultural studies maximum growth was observed on Czepk and Malt extract medium (85 mm) and minimum growth was on PDA (74.1 mm). The colony color was varies from whitish to black grayish with fluffy texture. Microscopically B. cinerea produces gray mycelium with branched conidiophores that that have rounded apical cells bearing cluster of colorless or gray one celled, ovoid conidia. The conidiophores and cluster of conidia resembles as a grape-like cluster. The pathogenecity test confirmed all the isolates of B. Cinerea were able to cause the gray mold disease. The overall objective of this study is to morphologically characterize the Botrytis cinera that provides a due step for management of Botrytis grey mould disease of lentil crops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In July 2019, leaf spot symptoms were observed on muskmelon (Cucumis melo L.) cv. Jackball-1 plants in an experimental field of 2.02 ha with a disease incidence of 30% (31°26'05.4"N 73°04'30.3"E) at the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan. Early symptoms consisted of small, circular, brown, necrotic spots 1 to 2 mm in size covering 10 to 30% of the leaf blade, which gradually enlarged and developed concentric rings. To identify the causal agent of the disease, a total of 20 symptomatic leaves were collected. Small pieces removed from the margin between healthy and diseased tissues were surface disinfected in 70% ethanol for 2 min, rinsed three times with sterile distilled water, plated on Potato dextrose agar and incubated at 25 ± 2°C with a 12-h photoperiod. Morphological observations were made on 7-day-old single-spore cultures. The colonies initially appeared white and then turned olive-green. All 20 fungal isolates were characterized by small, short-beaked, multicellular conidia. The conidia were ellipsoidal or ovoid and measured 11.5 to 30 μm × 7.5 to 15 μm (n = 50) with longitudinal and transverse septa. Conidia were produced on short conidiophores in chains. The beaks were short (often less than one-third the body length) and conical or cylindrical. These morphological features concur with the description of Alternaria alternata (Fr.) Keissler (Woudenberg et al. 2013). For molecular identification, genomic DNA of four representative isolates (HMSMZA 07, 08, 09, 10) were extracted and PCR amplification of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS)-rDNA, glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) and translation elongation factor-1 alpha (TEF-1α) gene regions were performed (White et al. 1990, Berbee et al. 1999, Carbone & Kohn, 1999) respectively. The obtained sequences were deposited in GenBank with accession numbers MT253643.1-MT253646.1 (ITS-rDNA), MT318260.1-MT318263.1 (GAPDH), and MT318280.1-MT318283.1 (TEF-1α). BLASTn analysis of HMSMZA 07 sequences showed 100% identity with ITS rDNA (MN615420.1), GAPDH (MK637438.1) and TEF-1α (MN807795.1) sequences of A. alternata. To confirm pathogenicity, 5-6 weeks-old Muskmelon (Cucumis melo L.) cv. Jackball-1 plants (true leaf stage) were sprayed until runoff (1.5 to 2 ml per plant) with A. alternata conidial suspension (106 conidia/ml; obtained from 1 week-old cultures) amended with 0.1% (vol/vol) of Tween 20 using an atomizer in the green house. The experiment included four A. alternata isolates inoculated onto three muskmelon plants per each isolate, whereas control plants (n = 3) were sprayed with sterile distilled water amended with 0.1% Tween 20. The plants were incubated at 25 ± 2°C in a greenhouse and the experiment was conducted twice. After 5 to 7 days post inoculation, necrotic leaf spots were observed on the inoculated plants and A. alternata was reisolated and confirmed by morphological and molecular (ITS) features. No disease was observed on control plants. Previously, A. alternata on muskmelon has been reported in Pakistan (Ahmad et al. 1997), however this study provides a detailed description of disease symptoms, morphological and molecular identity of the causal agent including completion of Koch's postulates. The disease could represent a threat for muskmelon crop in Pakistan due to its increasing cultivation and therefore warrants the need to develop disease management strategies.

Eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) is a popular vegetable that is grown in both tropical and subtropical regions all year long. The crop is cultivated on small family farms and is a good source of income for resource-limited farmers in Pakistan. In early May 2019, leaf spots on eggplant (cv. Bemisaal) were observed in an experimental field (31°26'14.0"N 73°04'23.4"E) at the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan. Early symptoms were small, circular, brown, necrotic spots uniformly distributed on leaves. The spots gradually enlarged and coalesced into large, nearly circular or irregularly shaped spots that could be up to 3 cm in length. The center of the spots was light tan, surrounded by a dark brown ring, a chlorotic halo, and tended to split in the later developmental stages. Disease incidence was approximately 35% in the infected field. The causal agent of this disease was isolated consistently by plating surface sterilized (1% NaOCl) sections of symptomatic leaf tissue onto potato dextrose agar (PDA). After 6 days incubation at 25°C with a 12-h photoperiod, fungal colonies had round margins and the cottony mycelia were dark olivaceous with a mean diameter of 7.5 cm. For conidial production, the fungus was grown on potato carrot agar (PCA) and V8 agar media under a 16-h/8-h light/ dark photoperiod at 25°C. Conidiophores were septate, light to olive golden brown with a conidial scar, from which conidia were produced. Conidia were borne singly or in short chains and were obpyriform to obclavate, measured 29 ± 4.8 × 13.25 ± 2.78 μm (n=30) with zero to three longitudinal and two to six transversal septa. The morphological characters matched those of Alternaria alternata (Fr.) Keisel (Simmons et al. 2007). DNA was extracted using the DNAzol reagent (Thermo Fisher Scientific MA, USA). For molecular identification, internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region between ITS1 and ITS2, actin gene (β-Actin), translation elongation factor (TEF-1α) gene, and glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) gene of two representative isolates (JLUAF1 and JLUAF2) were amplified with primers ITS1/ITS4 (White et al. 1990), β-Actin 512 F/783 R, EF1-728F/-986R (Carbone et al. 1999), and gpd1/gpd2 (Berbee et al. 1999), respectively. The sequences were deposited in GenBank (accession nos. MT228734.1 and MT228735.1 for ITS; MT260151.1 and MT260152.1 for β-Actin, MT260163.1 and MT260164.1, for TEF-1a, and MT260157.1 and MT260158.1 for GAPDH). BLASTn analysis of these sequences showed 100% identity with the sequences of A. alternata for ITS rDNA, β-Actin, TEF-1α, and GAPDH, respectively. Based on the morphological characters and DNA sequences, the leaf spot isolates of eggplant were identified as A. alternata. To confirm the pathogenicity on eggplant, six-week old healthy potted eggplants of cv. Bemisaal were sprayed at the true leaf stage with conidial suspensions of A. alternata (106 conidia/ml; obtained from 1-week-old cultures) amended with 0.1% (vol/vol) of Tween 20 until runoff (1.5 to 2 ml per plant) using an atomizer in the greenhouse. Three plants were inoculated with each of the two isolates (JLUAF1 and JLUAF2), whereas three control plants were sprayed with sterile distilled water amended with 0.1% Tween 20. The plants were incubated at 25 ± 2°C in a greenhouse, and the experiment was conducted twice. After 10 days of inoculation, each isolate induced leaf spots which were similar to typical spots observed in the field, whereas the control plants remained symptomless. The fungus was re-isolated from symptomatic tissues. Re-isolated fungal cultures were morphologically and molecularly identical to A. alternata, thus fulfilling Koch's postulates. Previously, A. alternata has been reported to cause leaf spots on eggplant in India (Raina et al. 2018). To our knowledge, this is the first report of A. alternata causing leaf spot on eggplant in Pakistan. The disease could represent a threat for eggplant crops due to its increasing cultivation. It is important to develop disease management strategies for Alternaria alternata causing leaf spot of Eggplant in Pakistan.

In June 2015 & 2016, a postharvest survey of table grapes (Vitis vinifera) cv. King's Ruby, was carried out in five different commercial fruit markets of Rawalpindi (33°38'19.2″N, 73°01'45.0″E) district, Punjab Province. Symptoms appeared as brownish lesions with black sporulation on grapes berries. The incidence of these symptoms on bunches ranged from 12 to 17% at all sites. Symptomatic tissue pieces were surface-sterilized with 0.1% sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) for 30 seconds, rinsed three times with sterile distilled water, dried on filter paper for 45 seconds, and incubated on potato dextrose agar (PDA) at 25°C. After 3 days, dark brown to black mycelium were formed on PDA media. A total of 24 isolates were examined morphologically. The apex of the conidiophore was observed to be radiate. Vesicles were found to be spherical and covered with irregular metulae and phialides. Conidia were globose or subglobose measured (3.14 μm ± 2.24 in averaged diameter: n=50), dark brown to black, with roughened cell walls. The conidiophores were also smooth-walled, hyaline, and became melanized toward the vesicle. These characteristics of the fungus were similar to those described for Aspergillus niger van Tiegh (de Hoog et al. 2000). For molecular identification, the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region, beta-tubulin (Bt) gene and partial RNA polymerase II largest subunit (RPB2) gene of representative isolate (Asp.n02) was amplified using primers ITS1/ITS4, BT2a/BT2b and RPB2-6F/RPB2-7R respectively (White et al., 1990; Glass & Donaldson, 1995; Liu et al. 1999). Sequences were deposited in GenBank (ITS, MN658871; Bt2, MT117924; and RPB2, MT318289). Based on BLAST analysis, sequences of the ITS region, Bt2 genes, and RPB2 gene showed 99 to 100% similarity of isolate Asp.n02 to Aspergillus niger (Accession Nos. MK307680.1, MN195121.1, MF078661.1 for ITS gene, MN567299.1, MK451029.1, MK451020.1 for Bt2 gene, and MK450788.1, MK450790.1 for RPB2 gene). To complete Koch's postulates, 10-µl aliquots of spore suspensions (106 spores/ml) of isolate: Asp.n 02 was pipetted onto three non-wounded and four wounded (5 mm diam) asymptomatic grape berries cv. King's Ruby (seven berries per isolate), Sterile distilled water was applied to asymptomatic berries similaries to serve as a negative control (Ghuffar et al. 2018; Jayawardena et al. 2018). Berries were incubated at 25 ± 2°C in sterile moisture chambers, and the experiment was conducted twice. Brownish lesions leading to black sporulation similar to the original symptoms were observed on both wounded and non-wounded inoculated berries after 3 days, whereas no symptoms were recorded on the negative control. The morphology of the fungus that was re-isolated from each of the inoculated berries was identical to that of the original cultures. Aspergillus niger was reported previously in Europe and Israel causing mycotoxin (Ochratoxin A) OTA production on Table grapes (Bau et al. 2006). To our knowledge, this is the first report of Aspergillus niger causing black rot of grapes in Pakistan. This finding will help to plan effective disease management strategies against the black rot of grapes in Pakistan.