Diversity of sooty blotch and flyspeck fungi from Serbia and Montenegro

Sooty blotch and flyspeck (SBFS) fungi cosmetically damage apple fruit by forming dark spots and blemishes on the fruit surface. The SBFS complex was long believed to comprise just two species, but more than 60 putative species have now been identified in the eastern U.S. In 2007, apples infested with SBFS were collected from 16 localities in Serbia and two in Montenegro. Signs on fruit were isolated onto acidified water agar and purified on potato dextrose agar. Mycelium was scraped from pure cultures and DNA was extracted, amplified, and sequenced using the primer set ITS-1F/ITS-4. Morphological observations of conidia and signs on apple fruit suggest that the most commonly occurring SBFS colonies were caused by Pseudocercosporella spp. Fungi within the genera Zygophiala and Peltaster were also observed. Preliminary evidence suggests that there are some SBFS fungi that are common to northern Europe and North America, but there appear to be other species that may be unique to the Balkan region.