Characterization of Phyllosticta hostae causing Phyllosticta leaf spot on spider lily in China.

Leaf spot disease on the spider lily [Hymenocallis littoralis (Jacq.) Salisb.] continues to cause serious problems in China. To confirm the pathogen, the pathogenicity of isolates from diseased leaves was tested according to Koch's postulates. The isolates were tentatively identified using morphological characteristics and confirmation was done by phylogenetic analysis of the translation elongation factor 1-alpha gene (TEF1), the actin gene (ACT), and internal transcibed spacer (ITS) sequences using neighbor-joining (NJ), maximum parsimony (MP), and Bayesian inference (BI) methods. The pathogen was identified as Phyllosticta hostae. Molecular analysis indicated very little diversity in the TEF1, ACT, and ITS gene. This is the first report of P. hostae causing leaf spot disease on spider lily in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]