From 2007 to 2008, a new dieback of branches of olive trees was observed in several orchards in central and southern Tunisia. The appearance of this new syndrome coincided with warm temperatures and frequent rainfall from February to April 2007. Affected trees were observed in seven commercial orchards; disease incidence ranged from 1 to 9% and affected trees were randomly distributed in each orchard. Symptoms included abundant dead branches and wilted leaves remained attached. Distinct brown areas appeared on the bark of current-year shoots as well as on larger branches. Cankers on branches that were >2 years old were difficult to detect but were conspicuous in current-year shoots. To determine the etiology of this new syndrome, a study was carried out on samples of affected branches collected from 2007 to 2008 from different areas of the country. Unidentified species of Chaetomium and Phoma were isolated from the margins of the cankers. Koch's postulates were performed with one isolate each of a Chaetomium sp. and a Phoma sp on 2-year-old olive trees, cv. Chemlali, grown in 13-cm-diameter pots containing a sand/lime/peat mixture. Stems were inoculated by placing 10 μl of conidial suspension (10⁶ conidia/ml) on 1-cm-long longitudinal stem wounds that had been made with a sterile scalpel. Control plants were wounded, but inoculum was replaced with sterile distilled water. Three sets of 10 plants each were wound inoculated with each of the fungi on the same day. Inoculated plants were covered with a polyethylene plastic bag to retain moisture and incubated for 2 months at 30°C with a 12-h photoperiod. After 45 days, only branches inoculated with the Phoma isolate showed brown discoloration areas at the inoculation sites. A Phoma sp. was recovered from necrotic bark from each of the 10 inoculated plants. Conidia were hyaline, unicellular, slightly ellipsoidal, and 4.8 to 6.3 × 1.8 to 2.2 μm. To confirm the identification, DNA extraction was done with hyphae collected from a 7-day-old culture on PDA after incubation at 25°C (1). Fungal primers ITS1 and ITS4 (3) were used for amplification. Purified amplicons were directly sequenced using the ITS1 and ITS4 primers for the internal transcribed spacer region of rDNA. A BLAST search of the GenBank database revealed 96% homology with Phoma sp. isolate (AJ972865.1) and 98% homology with Phoma medicaginis isolate (DQ026014.1). P. incompta has been reported as responsible for branch dieback of olive tree in Italy (2). To our knowledge, this is the first report of a canker disease of olive caused by a Phoma sp. in Tunisia. References: (1) S. R. Tendulkar et al. Biotechnol. Lett. 22:1941, 2003. (2) L. Tosi and A. Zazzerini. Petria 4:161, 1994. (3) T. J. White et al. Page 315 in: PCR Protocols: A Guide to Methods and Applications. Academic Press, San Diego, CA, 1990.

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   |texte=   First Report of a Branch Dieback of Olive Trees in Tunisia Caused by a Phoma sp.
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