Succulent plants are one of the most popular gardening plants because they are easy to grow and need tiny place. In spite of the increasing economic importance of the succulent plants business, information on their diseases is very limited. Phytopatho...
Succulent plants are one of the most popular gardening plants because they are easy to grow and need tiny place. In spite of the increasing economic importance of the succulent plants business, information on their diseases is very limited. Phytopathogens causing diseases in succulent plants were cultured and isolated from succulent leaves and/or tissues displaying disease symptoms. To identify the causal agents, I performed polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification with primers specific for the fungal ribosomal DNA internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions. After sequence analysis of them, the pathogens were tentatively identified as Cladosporium spp., Alternaria spp., Fusarium spp., and Colletotrichum spp. For the fulfillment of Koch’s postulates, I tested whether the fungal isolates pathogenicity test. Pure cultures of the isolates were inoculated on leaves of succulent plants, including hybrid of Echeveria and Sedum ‘Blue Elf’, by a sterilized needle and disease symptoms were observed for the incubation days. A combined sequence analysis of the ITS, partial actin (ACT), and translation elongation factor 1-alpha (TEF) revealed that the Cladosporium isolates belonged to a group of authentic strains, Cladosporium tenuissimum (C. tenuissimum). PCR amplification and Alternaria alternata (A. alternata), Fusarium oxysporum (F. oxysporum), and Colletotrichum spp. were amplified using only ITS primer set. Taken together, I identified novel phytopathogens, C. tenuissimum, A. alternata, F. oxysporum, and Colletotrichum, causing diseases in succulent plants.