First report of Fusarium euwallaceae on avocado trees in Palestine

Abstract

A new die back symptoms in many avocado orchards had been reported in Palestine. The disease is associated with the Ambrosia beetle Euwallacea fornicatus. Stem samples from infected avocado trees with obvious symptoms were collected from different regions in Palestine. Stem cuttings and dissected adult and galleries of the insect were placed on potato dextrose agar media and incubated for 5–7 days at 25 °C. PCR amplification using EF1/2 specific primers was performed to identify the isolated fungus. The resulting PCR products were sequenced. BLASTn search showed 99% similarity with Fusarium euwallaceae (Accession Nos. JX891785.1, JQ723763.1, JQ723762.1 and JQ723761.1). The isolated fungus was identified as F. euwallaceae (Genbank accession no. MK054177).

Keywords:

• Ambrosia beetle
• dieback
• avocado
• Fusarium
• Palestine

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Ministry of Agriculture for facilitating sample collection.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.