Elsinoë punicae causing scab of pomegranates in South Africa does not cause disease on citrus.

Elsinoë punicae was shown to be responsible for a new disease on pomegranates in South Africa. This disease has been found in three of the pomegranate production areas in the Cape provinces, and is characterised by scab-like symptoms on the fruit and brown spots on the leaves. Representative isolates were characterised by morphology, cultural growth and sequencing of the ITS. Additionally, the LSU, rpb2 and TEF1-α gene regions were also sequenced for one representative isolate from pomegranate. Phylogenetic analyses of the four loci confirmed the isolates as E. punicae. RAPD analyses were also performed with three primers on 19 isolates of E. punicae. The analyses showed that E. punicae isolates clustered together with high support apart from the reference isolates of E. australis, E. fawcetti and E. australis pathotype jojoba. Pathogenicity tests were conducted with E. punicae and two reference isolates (E. australis, E. fawcetti - Citrus pathogens) on whole plant leaves and detached leaves of pomegranate and different citrus types [grapefruit, rough lemon, navels, Valencias and mandarins] in official quarantine facilities. The results confirmed E. punicae as a pathogen of pomegranate and not citrus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]