First report of Diaporthe ueckerae causing stem canker on soybean (Glycine max L.) in Colombia.

In October 2018, soybean plants displaying elongated black to reddish-brown lesions on stems were observed in a field planted to the cv. BRS Serena in the locality of Puerto López (Meta, Colombia), with 20% incidence of diseased plants. Symptomatic stems were collected from five plants, and small pieces (∼5 mm2) were surface sterilized, plated on potato dextrose agar (PDA) and incubated for 2 weeks at 25°C in darkness. Three fungal isolates with similar morphology were obtained, i.e., by subculturing single hyphal tips, and their colonies on PDA were grayish-white, fluffy, with aerial mycelium, dark colored substrate mycelium, and produced circular black stroma. Pycnidia were globose, black, occurred as clusters, embedded in tissue, erumpent at maturity, with an elongated neck, and often had yellowish conidial cirrus extruding from the ostiole. Alpha conidia were observed for all isolates after 30 days growth on sterile soybean stem pieces (5 cm) on water agar, under 25ºC and 12 h light/12h darkness photoperiod. Alpha conidia (n = 50) measured 6.0 - 7.0 µm (6.4 ± 0.4 µm) × 2.0 - 3.0 µm (2.5± 0.4 µm), were aseptate, hyaline, smooth, ellipsoidal, often biguttulate, with subtruncate base. Beta conidia were not observed. Observed morphological characteristics of these isolates were similar to those reported in Diaporthe spp. by Udayanga et al. (2015). DNA from each fungal isolate was used to sequence the internal transcribed spacer region (ITS), and the translation elongation factor 1-α (TEF1) gene, using the primer pairs ITS5/ITS4 (White et al. 1990) and EF1-728F/EF1- 986R (Carbone & Kohn, 1999), respectively. Results from an NCBI-BLASTn, revealed that the ITS sequences of the three isolates (GenBank accessions MW566593 to MW566595) had 98% (581/584 bp) identity with D. miriciae strain BRIP 54736j (NR_147535.1), whereas the TEF1 sequences (GenBank accessions MW597410 to MW597412) had 97 to 100% (330-339/339 bp) identity with D. ueckerae strain FAU656 (KJ590747). The species Diaporthe miriciae R.G. Shivas, S.M. Thomps. & Y.P. Tan, and Diaporthe ueckerae Udayanga & Castl. are synonymous, with the latter taking the nomenclature priority (Gao et al. 2016). According to a multilocus phylogenetic analysis, by maximum likelihood, the three isolates clustered together in a clade with reference type strains of D. ueckerae (Udayanga et al. 2015). Soybean plants cv. BRS Serena (growth stages V3 to V4) were used to verify the pathogenicity of each isolate using a toothpick inoculation method (Mena et al. 2020). A single toothpick colonized by D. ueckerae was inserted directly into the stem of each plant (10 plants per isolate) approximately 1 cm below the first trifoliate node. Noncolonized sterile toothpicks, inserted in 10 soybean plants served as the non-inoculated control. Plants were arbitrarily distributed inside a glasshouse, and incubated at high relative humidity (>90% HR). After 15 days, inoculated plants showed elongated reddish-brown necrosis at the inoculated sites, that were similar to symptoms observed in the field. Non-inoculated control plants were asymptomatic. Fungal cultures recovered from symptomatic stems were morphologically identical to the original isolates. This is the first report of soybean stem canker caused by D. ueckerae in Colombia. Due to the economic importance of this disease elsewhere (Backman et al. 1985; Mena et al. 2020), further research on disease management strategies to mitigate potential crop losses is warranted.

First Report of Target Spot of Soybean caused by Corynespora cassiicola in the Colombian Eastern Plains.

Soybean (Glycine max L. Merr.) is an important leguminous crop for Colombia, given the growing demand from the livestock, poultry, and aquaculture industries. About 80 percent of Colombian soybean production is in the State, or Department, of Meta, located in the Eastern Plains region, or Llanos Orientales, where the crop has an average yield of 2.5 t.ha-1 (FENALCE 2020). In July 2017, foliar symptoms, including rounded to irregular reddish-brown spots surrounded by a yellowish halo progressing to irregular spots with concentric rings, and in severe cases defoliation, were observed in a production field of Soyica P-34 soybean cultivar in Puerto López, Meta (Colombia). Dark brown lesions on stems and dark-brown to black spots on pods were also observed, and the incidence of symptomatic plants was recorded as 50%. Four infected plants were arbitrarily sampled from different locations across the field, and used for pathogen isolation. Specimen collection was conducted according to the permit conferred to AGROSAVIA under ANLAS' resolution No 1466 of December 03, 2014, Colombia. Symptomatic leaf pieces (~ 5 mm2 sizes) were rinsed with tap water for 1 min, dipped in a 0.5% sodium hypochlorite for 2 min and rinsed with sterile distilled water for 1 min, and then plated on potato dextrose agar (PDA, 39 g.L-1). Plates were incubated at 25°C for two weeks with a 12/12 h light/dark cycle using dark light. Four monoconidial isolates, with similar morphological characteristics, were obtained. Observations under the light microscope showed that conidia (n=50) were hyaline, elongated, 65-120 × 9-12 µm, with 3 to 10 pseudosepta, corresponding with those characteristics described for Corynespora cassiicola (Berk. & M. A. Curtis) C. T. Wei (Ellis and Holliday, 1971). Colonies, on PDA medium, were dark gray with abundant aerial mycelia growth. To confirm the morphological identification, extracted DNA from isolates AGSV13 and AGSV15 was used as a template to obtain partial sequences of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of ribosomal DNA using the primer pair ITS 5/ITS 4 (White et al. 1990). Results from an NCBI-BLASTn search revealed that the ITS sequences (GenBank accessions MN298749 and MN298751) were 100% identical to those of C. cassiicola in GenBank (Accessions MN945374, AB873045). A phylogenetic analysis, using the maximum likelihood method, based on ITS sequences from voucher specimens of Corynespora spp. available at GenBank, revealed that the two isolates were placed in the same clade as C. cassiicola. Pathogenicity tests were conducted by spraying a conidial suspension (1 x 104 conidia.ml-1) of C. cassiicola AGSV13, onto young leaves (two to four true leaf stages) of 10 soybean plants (cv. Soyica P-34). Five plants were sprayed with sterile distilled water and served as non-inoculated control. All plants were incubated at high humidity for seven days at 28°C. Fungal inoculated plants showed typical foliar symptoms of brown spots surrounded by a yellowish halo, similar to those observed in the field. Disease symptoms were not observed on plants of the non-inoculated control. Fungal cultures were recovered from symptomatic leaves of all inoculated plants and verified as similar in morphology to the original C. cassiicola isolates, thus fulfilling Koch's postulates. Based on morphology, pathogenicity, and sequence data results, this is the first report of C. cassiicola causing Target spot on soybean in the Eastern Plains of Colombia and expands our knowledge of this disease. Target spot poses a threat to the expanding soybean crops in this country, as the range of yield losses due to this disease, in South America, has been estimated to be 8% to 42%, depending on the cultivar (Edwards Molina et al. 2019). These findings are significant to the soybean industry in Colombia and will be useful to provide better recommendations to growers for disease monitoring and management.