First Report of Pestalotiopsis adusta Species Complex Causing Leaf Spot on Red Mangrove ( Rhizophora mangle ) in Florida

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Publication Details

Journal
Plant Disease
Published
2026-09-20
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1094/pdis-06-26-1279-pdn
Primary Topic
Plant Pathogens and Fungal Diseases
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
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article

First Report of Pestalotiopsis adusta Species Complex Causing Leaf Spot on Red Mangrove ( Rhizophora mangle ) in Florida

Sushmita Sapkota, Seemanti Chakrabarti, Dhillon, Braham, Ph.D., Melissa M. Deinys et al.
Plant Disease
Plant Pathogens and Fungal Diseases
article

First Report of Pestalotiopsis adusta Species Complex Causing Leaf Spot on Red Mangrove ( Rhizophora mangle ) in Florida

Sushmita Sapkota, Seemanti Chakrabarti, Dhillon, Braham, Ph.D., Melissa M. Deinys, Swadeshmukul Santra
article en

Abstract

Red mangrove (Rhizophora mangle) is a salt-tolerant evergreen tree widely distributed throughout coastal regions of southern North America, the Caribbean, Central America, and tropical West Africa. In Florida, the species occurs along both the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic coasts (Irizarry and Andreu 2023) and is generally restricted to regions with mean air temperature of at least 20°C during the coldest months (Duke et al 1998). Red mangroves play an important role in protecting the coast from erosion during destructive storms as well as provide habitat and resources to numerous fishes, birds, reptiles, and mammals (Irizarry and Andreu 2023). In August 2025, necrotic leaf spots were observed on red mangrove plants at Holland Park, Hollywood, FL (26°01'13.4"N 80°07'07.2"W). Symptomatic leaf tissues from five different trees were surface sterilized in 30% bleach for 30 s, followed by 70% ethanol for 1 min, rinsed three times with sterile distilled water and plated onto ¼ Potato Dextrose Agar with 0.1% lactic acid. Plates were incubated in the dark at 22°C for four days. Fungal colonies initially produced white mycelia, followed by the development of black, globose acervuli near the infected leaf tissue. Conidia were fusioid, five-celled with concolorous median cells, having 2 - 3 apical appendages, consistent with the morphology of Pestalotiopsis spp. (Maharachchikumbura et al 2014). A representative isolate, RMG-T2, was transferred to potato dextrose agar (PDA) and genomic DNA was extracted using a modified CTAB method (Saghai-Maroof et al 1984) for molecular identification. Three loci were amplified using primer pairs ITS1/4 for nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region (White et al. 1990), Bt2a/2b for β-tubulin (Glass and Donaldson 1995), and TEF_526F/1567R for translation elongation factor 1-α (TEF1-α) (Roger et al. 1999), and sequences were deposited in GenBank (accession nos. PZ492897, PZ540954, and PZ538448), respectively. Sequence similarity results were inconsistent among loci as evident from BLASTN analyses that showed 100% identity of ITS region to Pestalotiopsis microspora (accession no. FJ037745), and 100%, and 99.6% identity of β-tub, and TEF1-α loci, respectively, to Pestalotiopsis adusta (accession nos. KJ885549, PQ141000). Sequences were concatenated and aligned with published reference sequences (Maharachchikumbura et al 2014), and a maximum-likelihood phylogenetic analysis was conducted. The resulting multilocus phylogeny placed isolate RMG-T2 within the redefined Pestalotiopsis adusta species complex (Zhang et al 2026). Pathogenicity was assessed on healthy potted red mangrove seedlings at four-leaf stage. Leaves were wounded with a sterile needle and inoculated with agar plugs from actively growing fungal cultures and sealed with parafilm. Inoculated plants were covered with plastic bags for 48 h to maintain high humidity. Necrotic lesions developed on inoculated leaves within 2-3 days after bag removal, whereas control plants inoculated with sterile agar plugs remained symptomless. The fungal pathogen was consistently reisolated from symptomatic tissues, with colony characteristics and conidial morphology identical to the original isolate, thereby fulfilling Koch’s postulates. To our knowledge, this is the first report of Pestalotiopsis adusta species complex causing leaf spot on red mangrove (Rhizophora mangle) in Florida.

Plant Disease
University of Central Florida (US), University of Fort Lauderdale (US)
Life below water
Openalex Percentile: Top 14%
Plant Pathogens and Fungal Diseases
DOISourceOpenAlex
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