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Myrcianthes pungens is a tree fruit native to Brazil, unknown to a large part of the population, with fruit consumed only locally. In October 2022, at the experimental area at Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná (UTFPR) in the Dois Vizinhos city, Paraná State, Brazil, symptoms of the disease were observed on mature leaves and fruits of 17 trees. Fungal fructifications were observed in the form of bright yellow uredinia containing a large mass of urediniospores on the surface and on the leaves and fruits that resembled the structures typical of a Myrtaceae rust pathogen. Leaves colonized by the fungus showed deformations, turning dark and rapidly causing senescence. In the orchard, the fungus affected 80% of the trees, with a severity of 40 to 45%. Diseased fruits (10) and leaves (10) (from each tree) were collected from 17 trees from different positions in the orchard. The observed structures (optical microscope) were hyaline and globose urediniospores (n = 30) which had pointed echinulate ornaments throughout their surface (Cummins & Hiratsuka, 2003), (n = 30, 14.84 μm × 21.1 μm). These characteristics were similar to the morphological characteristics of the genus Austropuccinia previously described by Young et al. (2019). A strain was selected as a representative for molecular characterization and pathogenicity tests (accession no. APM001). For molecular identification, the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region (Kroop et al., 1995), b-tubulin (TUB2), and translation elongation factor 1-alpha (TEF) (Machado et al., 2015) were amplified by PCR and sequenced. The sequences were deposited in GenBank (accession nos. ITS: OQ442638, TUB2: OQ506543, and TEF: OQ506542). Phylogenetic analyses using Bayesian inference grouped the isolate with the type species of Austropuccinia psidii with a high posterior probability (1.0). Pathogenicity tests used conidial suspensions (1x105urediniospores/ml). Four branches containing twenty leaves and two young asymptomatic fruits were individually inoculated with 1.5 mL of urediniospore suspension using a bottle with a spray nozzle cap. The branches were protected with perforated transparent plastic bags moistened with distilled water and incubated at room temperature (18 ºC to 25 ºC). Three replicates (pathogen and control) spread on different trees in the orchard were used in this experiment. After seven days, symptoms of rust appeared on the leaves and on the tenth day of the fruits, with morphological characteristics similar to those previously reported. Control branches showed no fungal growth. The inoculation test was repeated, confirming the symptoms. This is the first report of the incidence of rust caused by A. psidii on leaves and fruits of M. pungens in Paraná State. The importance of the disease is due to the high percentage of fruit loss due to rapid rot and drop caused by the pathogen attack.

Campomanesia guazumifolia is a Brazilian fruit tree that has ecological importance and the potential to be explored by the food and medical industries (Lima et al., 2011). In February 2019, in the experimental orchard at the Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná, Dois Vizinhos city, Paraná State – Brazil, disease symptoms were observed on leaves, stems, and fruits of 22 C. guazumifolia trees. Yellow uredinia were observed on upper side of the leaves, stems, and flowers, which resembled typical uredinia of Myrtaceae rust. The pustules occurred mainly on young shoots, and on flowers, they infected their sepals. Over time, tissues colonized by the pathogen exhibited deformations and mummification occurred in infected fruits. In the orchard, the fungus affected 80% yield. Twenty diseased plant parts (from each of the eleven trees) were collected at different positions in the orchard. One strain were selected as a representative for morphological characterization, multilocus phylogenetic analysis, and pathogenicity tests. The structures observed were epiphyllous uredinia (leaves), united in small groups with hyaline and obovoid or obpyriform urediniospores, which presented echinulate ornaments, germinated pores in the subequatorial and inordinate positions (Cummins; Hiratsuka, 2003) (n = 30, 14.84 x 21.12 μm). The morphology of uredinia and urediniospores was similar to the morphological characteristics of the genus Austropuccinia previously described in Young (2019). For molecular identification, genomic DNA was extracted and the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region (White et al. 1990), β-tubulin (TUB2) and translation elongation factor 1-alpha (TEF) (Machado et al. 2012) were amplified by PCR, and sequenced. Bayesian inference was used to reconstruct a phylogenetic tree, using MrBayes v. 3.2.1 (Ronquist et al., 2012). The multilocus phylogenetic analysis clearly distinguished the isolate APCG001 as Austropuccinia psidii separating it from all other species. The sequences were deposited in GenBank (accessions nos. ITS: ON003418, TUB2: ON568196, and TEF: ON437601). For pathogenicity tests, four healthy branches (20 leaves each) were sprayed with 2.5 mL of (APCG001) uredospore suspension (105 mL-1) and covered with a plastic bag in the orchard. The air temperature ranged from 16ºC to 25ºC. Sterile distilled water was used as a control. Three replications (pathogen and control) were performed on different trees. After 6 days, symptoms of rust appeared on the plants. Control branches did not show fungal growth. The inoculation test was repeated again, confirming the initial results. This is the first report of infection by A. psidii in C. guazumifolia trees in Brazil, causing rust, necrosis, and early senescence in fruits, leaves, and stems. Myrtaceae rust reduces the C. guazumifolia leaf area, affecting photosynthetic production and reducing fruit quality.

The Eugenia myrcianthes fruit can be consumed in natural or processed form (jellies and juices) (Infante et al., 2016). In 2019, in the UTFPR, Dois Vizinhos city, Paraná State – Brazil, yellow uredinias epiphyllous were observed on the tissue surface (leaves, stems, flowers, and fruit) of twenty-one trees of E. myrcianthes, which resembled structures typical of Myrtaceae rust. All colonized tissues showed necrotic lesions that varied in size and shape, causing death, especially in fruit. In the orchard, the fungus affects 50% to 95% yield. Fruit (10) and leaves (20) with symptoms were collected from 11 trees from different positions in the orchard. Infected tissues were incubated (25°C and 12-hour photoperiod) for 7 days to induce sporulation. The epiphyllous uredinia, united in small groups with hyaline and globose urediniospores were observed and presented equinulate ornaments and germinated pores in the subequatorial and inordinate positions (De Pieri, 2012; Cummins; Hiratsuka, 2003) (mean 14.00 μm × 21.12 μm, n = 30) similar to the morphological characteristics of the Austropuccinia genus described by Young (2019). The identification of 10 samples (fruit and leaf) of the pathogen taken from infected parts of the trees was confirmed. For molecular identification, the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region was amplified by polymerase chain reaction (White et al. 1990) and sequenced. Phylogenetic analyses using Bayesian inference grouped the strain from Eugenia myrcianthes with the epitype species of Austropuccinia psidii (Beenken, 2017), with a high posterior probability (0.99). The sequences of one representative strain (Emg1) were submitted to GenBank (OM948983). For pathogenicity tests, three healthy branches containing 20 leaves were sprayed with 3.0 mL of urediniospores suspension (105) of Emg1 and covered with a plastic bag in the orchard (25ºC). Sterile distilled water was used as a control. Three replications (pathogen and control) were performed on different trees. After 6 days, symptoms appeared and their morphological features were similar to those previously reported. Control branches did not present fungal growth. The inoculation test was repeated again, confirming symptoms such as uredinia and urediniospores, characteristic of the disease. This is the first report of the incidence of A. psidii infection in E. myrcianthes trees in Brazil, causing rust, necrosis, and senescence in fruit, leaves, flowers, and stems. The rust on E. myrcianthes causes destructive damage to yield, as the pathogen causes fruit to rot and drop prematurely.

Anthracnose, caused by

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Background Xanthomonas citri pv. viticola is one of the most critical grapevine diseases in the Northeast of Brazil, presenting a high risk to Brazilian and worldwide areas of grape production. The X.citri pv. viticola epithet was recently proposed to be changed from X. campestris pv. v iticola based on multilocus sequence analysis and whole-genome sequences. Besides, genomics has revolutionized the field of bacteriology, by associating genome sequencing with comparative analysis such as in silico analysis such as DNA-DNA hybridization, average nucleotide identity, distance between genomes, pan-genomic approach, and phylogenomic, providing valuable insights and knowledge about virulence factors and contributing to increase the understanding and clarifying the taxonomic relationship of Xanthomonas and others prokaryotic species.Results We used the whole-genome sequence of three Brazilian strains and the pathotype to characterize X.citri pv. viticola accessions plus 124 whole-genome sequences of Xanthomonas species available in NCBI, comprising 13 species and 15 pathovars. The whole-genome sequence structure of X. citri pv. viticola was shown presents a high level of conservation concerning other X. citri species. Pan-genomic approaches, average nucleotide identity analysis, and in silico DNA-DNA hybridization were carried out, allowing X.citri pv. viticola characterization and inferences on the phylogenetic relationships within Xanthomonas . The analysis of the sequence of the 128 genomes clustered the Xanthomonas strains in eight main groups according to the recently proposed classification in all approaches used. Also, the analysis revealed that X. hortorum and X. gardneri should be classified as a single species, and the strain 17 of X. campestris and XC01 of X. citri pv. mangiferaeindicae widely described in the literature are misclassified.Conclusions We performed the genomic characterization of three representative Brazilian strains of Xcv . The genomic approaches based in the pan-genome, average nucleotide identity, and in silico DNA-DNA hybridization support the proposed taxonomic position of X.citri pv. viticola and of the recently proposed Xanthomonas species and pathovars. In addition, we detected species delimitation of the misclassified Xanthomonas strains with extensive studies reported in the literature.