Sigatoka disease complex

Pseudocercospora • Capnodiales • Dothideomycetes • Ascomycota • fungi • plant diseases • pests-diseases-weeds

symptoms on banana leaves (left and middle column) and conidia (right column) of Pseudocercospora eumusae (top row), P. fijiensis (midle row) and P. musae (bottom row), scale bars = 10 µm (click on image to enlarge it)
Author(s): A. Viljoen and G. Kema
Source: PLoS Genetics (2016) 12 (8) e1005904

Sigatoka disease complex

Three species of the genus Pseudocercospora cause serious leaf spot diseases on bananas and plantains. These are economically the most destructive diseases of the world-wide banana industry with an annual output of 100 million tons (FAO, Statistics, 2003) and many farming communities relying exclusively on this crop. The following 3 species of the complex are genetically closely related, are morphologically very similar, cause similar symptoms and with rare exceptions are confined to the plant genus Musa (bananas and plantains) as hosts. Typically, they can cause up to 50% yield losses and are difficult to control. In the following list, click on the latin name for more details and for publication lists:

• Pseudocercospora musae (yellow Sigatoka) was first recorded in 1902 on the Indonesian island of Java and has spread to all banana growing areas around the world. It is the least virulent species in the complex.
• Pseudocercospora fijiensis (black Sigatoka) was first recorded from the Sigatoka district of the Fijian island of Viti Levu in 1963. It has also spread extensively to the major banana producing countries around the world, gradually replacing the yellow Sigatoka disease. It is the most aggressive species in the complex.
• Pseudocercospora eumusae (eumusae leaf spot of banana) has been known from several countries in southern Asia since the mid 1990s. It has been also recorded in some parts of Africa.

For a genetic analysis of the complex see Chang et al., 2016.