Postharvest Fruit rot of Persimmon (Diospyros kaki) in Spain Caused by Lasiodiplodia theobromae and Neofusicoccum spp.

Abstract

Three different fungi (isolates IVIA QCV‐1, IVIA QCV‐3 and IVIA QCV‐4) were isolated as potential causal agents of postharvest decay losses observed on sweet persimmons (Diospyros kaki L.) cv. ‘Rojo Brillante’ from commercial packinghouses in the Valencia area (Spain). Disease symptoms were irregular brownish and soft lesions mainly located under and surrounding the fruit calyx (stem‐end) that expanded rapidly at room temperature and turned to dark brown or black colour producing apparent and in some cases abundant white to grey mycelium. The identification of Lasiodiplodia theobromae, Neofusicoccum mediterraneum and Neofusicoccum luteum by macroscopic and microscopic morphological observations was confirmed with the amplification and subsequent sequencing of the ribosomal DNA ITS2 region. Representative nucleotide sequences were deposited in GenBank. Pathogenicity of all three isolates was demonstrated by fulfilling Koch's postulates.