First Report of Pseudoperonospora cubensis Causing Downy Mildew of Trichosanthes cucumerina in Malaysia

In December 2008, infected leaves of Trichosanthes cucumerina were observed on commercial cucurbit farms located in Pontian, Johor (south of West Malaysia). Bright yellow and small necrotic lesions were observed on the adaxial surface of the leaves, whereas sporangiophores were observed on pale yellowish brown-to-brown lesions on the abaxial surface. The length and width of the sporangia ranged from 19 to 36 μm (28.6) and 11 to 23 μm (17.6), respectively. The length of the sporangiophores ranged from 310 to 450 μm, with an average length of 380 μm. The pathogen was identified as Pseudoperonospora cubensis on the basis of the morphological criteria described by Palti and Cohen (2). To confirm the morphological findings, DNA was extracted from symptomatic tissue and the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region was PCR amplified using primers ITS5-P2 and ITS4 (3). The appropriate-sized amplicon was gel excised and column purified and then submitted for direct sequencing. The resulting 802 bp amplified ITS region was 100% identical to published P. cubensis sequences (GenBank Accession Nos. EU876603, EU876584, and AY198306). This sequence was deposited with NCBI GenBank under the Accession No. GU233293. In this study, pathogenicity tests were conducted using detached leaf disc assays (1) and a P. cubensis isolate obtained from T. cucumerina. For this purpose, leaf discs were excised from 6- to 8-week-old leaves of T. cucumerina using a 20-mm cork borer. Five leaf discs were placed with their abaxial surface facing upward on moist filter paper in petri dishes. Each of four leaf discs was inoculated with four 10-μl droplets of a 1 × 10⁵ per ml sporangial suspension, whereas the fifth disc was inoculated with water droplets and served as a control. Three replications were completed. The leaf discs were placed in darkness at 14 ± 2°C for 24 h and subsequently incubated with a 12-h photoperiod. After 10 days, sporulation was observed on the sporangia-inoculated leaf discs with similar morphological features to the initial field samples. To our knowledge, this is the first report of P. cubensis causing downy mildew of T. cucumerina in Malaysia. References: (1) A. Lebeda and M. P. Widrlechner. J. Plant Dis. Prot. 110:337, 2003. (2) J. Palti and Y. Cohen. Phytoparasitica 8:109, 1980. (3) H. Voglmayr and O. Constantinescu. Mycol. Res. 112:487, 2008.