Fungi associated with sick trees of Pinus patula in Tetela de Ocampo, Puebla, Mexico

Abstract

The diseases found in Pinus patula, a species present in the forest area of Puebla, Mexico cause foliage loss and damage to trees and we consider that fungi could be involved. The objective of the current investigation was to study the nutrients of the soil and the fungi associated with the lesions on the needles of Pinus patula in Tetela de Ocampo, Puebla, Mexico. It was found that the nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium content of the soils associated with pine, as well as the organic matter, were poor. In addition, we performed chemical, physical and biological analyses on soils from the study site. We isolated forty-five fungi from the lesions on the needles. The identification of twelve of them was both morphological and molecular by sequence analysis of the ITS1-ITS2 gene. The identified fungi included Alternaria alternata, Annulohypoxylon stygium, Botryosphaeria dothidea, Curvularia lunata, Curvularia pseudobrachyspora, Curvularia spicifera, Curvularia trifolii, Daldinia eschscholtzii, Daldinia sp. Diplodia sapinea, Lophodermium indianum and Myrmaecium rubricosum. We concluded that P. patula is affected by nutritional deficiency as well as by the presence of phytopathogenic fungi.

Keywords:

• Endophytic fungi
• phytopathogen
• phylogeny

Acknowledgments

To the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia (CONACYT), for the fellowship Grant of Master in Environmental Sciences awarded to Luis Martín Gutiérrez Flores. To the Comisión Nacional Forestal (CONAFOR)-Puebla, México for support in field sampling. To the Vicerectoria de Investigación y Estudios de Posgrado (VIEP) of the Benemérita Universidad Autonoma de Puebla (BUAP), for support research project “Diagnosis of the fungal disease of Pinus patula of Tetela de Ocampo, Puebla and proposal for biocontrol” (100155588-VIEP2017-2019). Finally to James L. Fidelholtz, Montes, R.G. and Gutierrez, F.D., for support in the English language revision.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).