Abstract:

Pear is the third important fruit in China and constitutes an important component of the fruit industry in Zhejiang Province. In recent years, a spot disease of unknown etiology has been prevalent in pear orchards and caused economic losses in Haining, Jiaxing, Zhejiang. In this study, we collected diseased leaves and fruits from five pear trees in the orchards of Qianjiang Village, Huangwan, Haining, Jiaxing, using a diagonal sampling method. The morphology of the fruiting bodies was observed under a stereomicroscope, and the isolation and purification of supspected pathogen were conducted on 50 diseased leaves and 50 diseased pears. The results of morphology obsenation of fruiting bodies showed that the pathogen was a species of Cercosporioid. Furthermore, molecular identification of 13 isolates was performed with rDNA-ITS sequencing, and the results showed a 99.8% sequence identity with the ITS sequence of Pseudocercospora mali strain MUCC 886. Therefore, we proposed that the pathogen of pear mold spot in Haining was Pseudocercospora mali. In this study, the symptoms of pear mold spot on fruits was described at the first time, and the results provided a reference for the control of pear mold spot.

Key words: pear mold spot, pathogen, identification, Pseudocercospora mali