Lasiodiplodia syzygii sp. nov. (Botryosphaeriaceae) causing post-harvest water-soaked brown lesions on Syzygium samarangense in Chiang Rai, Thailand

BACKGROUND: Syzygium samarangense (Wax apple) is an important tropical fruit tree with high economic and nutrient value and is widely planted in the tropics or subtropics of Asia. Post-harvest water-soaked brown lesions were observed on mature fruits of ornamental wax apples in Chiang Rai Province, Thailand. A fungus with morphological characters, similar to Lasiodiplodia, was consistently isolated from symptomatic fruits. Phylogenetic analyses, based on ITS, LSU, TEF1-a and tub2, revealed that our isolates were closely related to, but phylogenetically distinct from, Lasiodiplodia rubropurpurea. NEW INFORMATION: Morphological comparisons indicated that pycnidia and conidiogenous cells of our strains were significantly larger than L. rubropurpurea. Comparisons of base-pair differences in the four loci confirmed that the species from wax apple was distinct from L. rubropurpurea and a new species, L. syzygii sp. nov., is introduced to accommodate it. Pathogenicity tests confirmed the newly-introduced species as the pathogen of this post-harvest water-soaked brown lesion disease on wax apples.