Forest Pathology (2015) 45, 274-280

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K. Kräutler, R. Treitler and T. Kirisits (2015)
Hymenoscyphus fraxineus can directly infect intact current-year shoots of Fraxinus excelsior and artificially exposed leaf scars
Forest Pathology 45 (4), 274-280
Abstract: Hymenoscyphus fraxineus, the causal agent of ash dieback, was inoculated onto intact, unwounded current-year shoots and leaf scars of 4-year-old, potted Fraxinus excelsior seedlings. Pieces of ash wood colonized by the fungus were used as inoculum. Three of 25 (12%) of the inoculated intact shoots and nine of 25 (36%) of the inoculated leaf scars were infected by H. fraxineus and developed typical symptoms of ash dieback, including necrotic lesions on the shoot surface and wood discoloration as well as shoot and leaf wilting distal to the inoculation site. No symptoms occurred on control seedlings, which had been inoculated in the same way but with sterile wood pieces. Visible necrotic lesions on shoots and wood discoloration were statistically significantly longer in proximal than in distal direction from the inoculation site, a pattern which resembles symptoms after natural infection. The ash dieback pathogen was re-isolated from nine of 12 (75%) of the symptomatic seedlings. These results provide indirect supportive evidence that the fungus infects shoots via leaves and shows that it is able, under experimental conditions using a massive mycelial inoculum, to directly infect intact, unwounded current-year shoots of its main host in Europe.
(The abstract is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and has been copied with permission by the publisher.)
Link to article at publishers website
Database assignments for author(s): Thomas Kirisits

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
general biology - morphology - evolution


Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial Pest/Disease/Weed Crop/Product Country Quarant.


Hymenoscyphus fraxineus Ash (Fraxinus)