Occurrence of shoot blight disease, caused by Cylindrocarpon destructans (Zinss) Scholten, on cherry trees (Prunus avium) in Greece

Abstract

Shoot blight is a common stone fruit disease that occurs worldwide. The disease is most commonly identified in early spring, shortly after bud break. To our knowledge, this is the first report of the fungus Cylindrocarpon destructans causing severe canker and shoot blight on cherry tree in Greece and worldwide. This study also investigated the effect of temperatures and moisture on the mycelial growth and conidial germination of C. destructans. It was found that a temperature range of 10 to 30 °C was adequate for mycelial growth and conidial germination, with 20 °C being the optimum. In addition, 6 h of continuous moisture at 20 °C was required to initiate conidial germination, and germination gradually increased as the duration of continuous moisture increased from 6 to 36 h, with no further increases observed up to 48 h. The pathogenicity and virulence of C. destructans to commercial cherry, plum, peach, apricot, apple and pear cultivars were also examined. The results of this study showed that C. destructans did not show host specificity as it was pathogenic to all peach, plum, apricot, pear and apple cultivars tested. Some differences in the level of susceptibility were found among cultivars evaluated. Based on the above results, a logistic regression model could be developed that adequately describes the effects of pre-inoculation moisture and temperature on the infection incidence in cherry trees.