The eucalypt leaf blight pathogen Kirramyces destructans discovered in Australia

T. I. Burgess; V. Andjic; M. J. Wingfield; G. E. St. J. Hardy

doi:10.1071/DN07056

RESEARCH ARTICLE

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The eucalypt leaf blight pathogen Kirramyces destructans discovered in Australia

T. I. Burgess ^A ^B ^C , V. Andjic ^A , M. J. Wingfield ^B and G. E. St. J. Hardy ^A

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A Biological Science, Murdoch University, South Street, Murdoch 6150, Australia.

^B Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI), University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002, South Africa.

^C Corresponding author. Email: tburgess@murdoch.edu.au

Australasian Plant Disease Notes 2(1) 141-144 https://doi.org/10.1071/DN07056
Submitted: 16 August 2007 Accepted: 10 September 2007 Published: 26 September 2007

Abstract

Kirramyces destructans is a serious pathogen causing a leaf, bud and shoot blight disease of Eucalyptus species in plantations of the subtropics and tropics of South East Asia. This pathogen was first discovered in Indonesia in 1995 and has subsequently spread to Thailand, China and Vietnam. Kirramyces destructans is not known to occur in Australia and has been considered a major biosecurity threat. During the course of the past four years, surveys have been conducted in existing eucalypt trials in tropical Australia. Several Kirramyces spp. were detected in these surveys, including isolates with morphological and cultural characteristics resembling those of K. destructans. In this study, DNA sequences of three gene regions were used to compare isolates of Kirramyces spp. emerging from the surveys and these were compared with those of K. destructans and the closely related K. eucalypti and K. viscidus. Results have shown, for the first time, that K. destructans is present in northern Australia (Melville Island, Northern Territory and Derby, Western Australia). The observed sequence variation among a small number of isolates also strongly suggests K. destructans is endemic to Northern Australia.

Acknowledgements

This work was funded in part by the Australian Research Council DP0664334, ‘Biosecurity of Australia’s eucalypts at risk from exotic fungal diseases present in the Asian region’. Vera Andjic received a Murdoch University Doctoral Research Scholarship to undertake this and related studies. We thank Dianne White for technical support and Great Southern Limited for allowing us access to their trials on Melville Island. We would also like to thank the Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries for access to trial plantations in northern Queensland which have been surveyed in conjunction with Mr Geoff Pegg and Dr Angus Carnegie.

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