First Report of Fusarium acuminatum Causing Leaf Blight on Garlic in China

In June 2021, leaf blight symptoms were detected on garlic plants (Allium sativum) in southeastern Jiangsu (Nantong municipality; 120.61° E, 33.25° N) in China. Two-month-old garlic plants exhibited leaf tip die back and light brown lesions in new and old leaves (Figure 1). The symptoms were observed in 40% of the plants in a 60-square-meters commercial field surrounded by rice fields, and were similar to those reported for Botrytis porri, Septoria allii and Stemphylium eturmiunum causing leaf blight on garlic (Dumin et al. 2021; Park et al. 2013; Zhang et al. 2009). Six samples of symptomatic tissue collected in Nantong municipality, approximately 1 cm2 in size, were sterilized in 2% NaOCl for 15 min and washed twice with sterile ddH2O. The pathogen was isolated from all collected samples on PDA medium, containing 50 µg/mL chloramphenicol, at 26°C. Pink colonies with orange pigmentation were observed after 7 days. Internal transcribed spacer (ITS), elongation factor 1-α (EF1-α), RNA polymerase II largest subunit (RPB1) and RNA polymerase II second largest subunit (RPB2) genes were amplified using ITS1/ITS4, EF1-728F/EF1-986R, RPB1-R8/RPB1-F5 and fRPB2-7CF/fRPB2-11aR primers, respectively. A total of 17 isolates were obtained, with nine of the isolates sharing the same sequences (strain NJC21), six of the isolates sharing the same sequences (strain NJC22), and the other two isolates showing different sequences (strains NJC23 and NJC24). The obtained sequences were submitted in GenBank under accession numbers OL655398-OL655401 (ITS), and OL741712-OL741723 (EF1-α, RPB1, RPB2). The obtained ITS sequences shared >99% homology to the ITS gene from F. acuminatum IBE000006 (EF531232), the EF1-α sequences shared 99% homology to the EF1-α gene from F. acuminatum F1514 (LC469785), the RPB1 sequences shared >99% homology to the RPB1 gene from F. acuminatum JW 289003 (MZ921675), and the RPB2 sequences shared 100% homology to the RPB2 gene from F. acuminatum NL19-077002 (MZ921813) or 100% homology to the RPB2 gene from F. acuminatum MD1 (MW164629). A phylogenetic tree was constructed using MEGA7 with related Fusarium strains (Figure 2). Microscope observations after incubation in potato-sucrose-agar (PSA) medium showed the presence of oval microconidia, fusiform macroconidia, septate mycelium and chlamydospores, and agree with the morphology of F. acuminatum (Marek et al. 2013). The pathogenicity was screened with two-week-old wounded and non-wounded garlic plants using a 1 × 106 spores/mL solution (20 µL). Sterile ddH2O was used in the control experiment. The inoculated plants were incubated at 26°C and 60% relative humidity for 3 days, detecting similar lesions compared to those observed in the field. The pathogen was recovered from 5 different lesions, from different plants, and its identity was confirmed by sequence analysis. Recently, F. acuminatum was reported to cause garlic bulb rot in Serbia (Ignjatov et al. 2017). Although F. acuminatum is well known as a causal agent of root rot (Li et al. 2021; Tang et al. 2021), F. acuminatum has also been found causing leaf blight on onion (Parkunan et al. 2013) and muskmelon (Yu et al. 2021). This is the first report of F. acuminatum causing leaf blight on garlic, demonstrating the host and tissue promiscuity of this pathogen. China is the largest producer of garlic in the world with nearly 20 million tons harvested in 2020. This report will help to better understand the pathogens that are affecting garlic production in China.