Genetic variation, morphology and pathogenicity of Ceratocystis fimbriata on Hevea brasiliensis in Brazil

Ceratocystis fimbriata causes diseases on a wide variety of plants in Brazil, including rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis), on which it causes gray mold or moldy rot on tapping panels affecting latex yield. However, C. fimbriata isolated from rubber tree have not been critically studied. Phylogenetic analyses of sequences of ITS rDNA and a mating type gene placed rubber tree isolates from Acre and Bahia among Brazilian isolates of C. fimbriata from other hosts. In the analyses of 14 microsatellite loci, the rubber tree isolates from Bahia were identical to each other and had alleles similar to those of Brazilian isolates from mango and eucalyptus. The microsatellite alleles of the Acre rubber tree isolates were identical to each other but distinct from other Brazilian isolates. The rubber tree isolates were morphologically indistinguishable from each other and very similar to the isolates of C. fimbriata on Ipomoea batatas, on which the species was originally described. Based on inoculation experiments results, the Bahia and Acre rubber tree isolates do not appear to be host specialized, which is typical for Brazilian isolates of C. fimbriata sensu stricto.