First report of Lasiodiplodia iraniensis causing crown rot on banana fruits in Brazil

Banana is a fruit of great importance in Brazil and crown rot cause considerable damage and losses (Ploetz et al. 2003). The disease is associated with fungal complexes, especially the sensu lato (Kamel et al. 2016; Renganathan et al. 2020; Waliullah et al. 2022). Three asymptomatic bunches of banana cv. 'Prata Catarina' were collected in Russas, Brazil (04°58'11.6"S, 38°01'44.5"W), in 2017. The samples were disinfected (NaClO, 200 ppm), and incubated in a moist chamber at 28 °C, with 12 h light/12 h dark for 3 days. With the appearance of the symptoms (32% of severity), the isolation was conducted in potato dextrose agar (PDA). A monosporic culture (BAN14) was obtained from a typical crown rot lesion, which was subjected to morphological characterization, showing abundant aerial mycelium of olivaceous grey color on the surface and greenish grey on the back (Rayner 1970) in PDA after 15 days at 28 °C. The growth rate was 28.2 mm. day-1. The fungus produced pycnidia and conidia on water agar medium containing pine needles, with 3-4 weeks at 28 °C, presenting conidia initially aseptate, subglobose to subcylindrical, becoming pigmented with 1-central transverse septum and longitudinal striations 23.5 (18.7) 26.0 x 12.7 (9.7) 14.8 µm (n=50). Paraphyses, hyaline, cylindrical, thin-walled, apparently coenocytic with rounded apex, with length and width dimensions of 34 (43.8) 53.2 x 2.1 (2.5) 3.2 µm (n=30). Conidiophore absent, conidiogenous cells hyaline, smooth and with thin walls. The genomic DNA was extracted and amplified by PCR with primers TEF1-688F/TEF1-1251R, ITS1/ITS4, and Bt2a/Bt2b, and sequenced in both directions (O'Donnell et al. 1998; O'Donnell et al. 2010) (GenBank accession ON975017 [TEF1], ON986403 [TUB2], and ON921398 [ITS]). BLASTn analysis of TEF1, TUB2 and ITS sequences in NCBI database showed 99 to 100% nucleotide identity to a representative isolate of (IRAN921). Phylogenetic analysis using maximum parsimony based on the combined TEF1, TUB2 and ITS sequences indicated that the BAN14 formed a supported clade (82% bootstrap value) to . The pathogenicity was evaluated in 20 banana fruit cv. 'Prata Catarina', at the point of harvest. For inoculation, the bananas were washed with water and soap, and disinfected with NaClO (200 ppm). Posteriorly, two wounds were made on the extremities of the fruits, in which were deposited mycelial discs of 5 mm in diameter, with 7 days of the growth on PDA. After inoculation, the fruits were incubated in plast