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First Report of Fusarium avenaceum Causing Postharvest Decay of European Pear in Mid-Atlantic United
States

Tamara D. Collum, Breyn Evans, Christopher Gottschalk

Appalachian Fruit Research Station, USDA-ARS, Kearneysville, WV 25430

Fruit losses due to postharvest decay caused by several fungal species is a major challenge for pear
production (Sardella et al. 2016). In December 2021, a European pear (Pyrus communis L.) ‘Dawn’ with
brown, circular, watery, and sunken lesions was observed in cold storage at the USDA Appalachian Fruit
Research Station in Kearneysville, West Virginia. Only 1 of 14 ‘Dawn’ pears examined in cold storage had
the described disease symptoms. The fruit was surface sterilized, and symptomatic tissue was
transferred to potato dextrose agar (PDA) and incubated at 25°C under continuous light. The isolate was
hyphal tip purified and propagated on PDA plates at 25°C. The colonies grew an average of 8 mm/day
and produced fluffy white aerial mycelium and pigmented rings of golden yellow which then darkened
to pink with a dark pink on the reverse. The isolate was also cultured in liquid basal medium with
carboxymethyl cellulose (Moura et al. 2020) for 7 days at 25°C to promote macroconidia formation.
Macroconidia were slightly falcate with a tapering apical cell, usually 2 to 4 septate, and on average 16.8
µm long by 2.8 µm wide. The isolate was identified as Fusarium spp. based on morphology. Identity of
the isolate was confirmed through sequencing of the ITS and TEF1 gene region (Stielow et al. 2015). The
ITS and TEF1 sequences were deposited in GenBank (OP007197 and OP007198). BLAST analysis of the
ITS amplicon identified multiple Fusarium spp. with 100% identity and 100% query coverage including F.
avenaceum KJ562378. BLAST analysis of the TEF1 amplicon showed 99% identity and 99-100% query
coverage with F. avenaceum isolates KM189442 and MK512754. Organic Bartlett pears were surface
sanitized with a 1% aqueous chlorine solution, rinsed with sterile water and dried in a laminar flow
hood. Fruit were then wounded with a sterile nail (4 mm diameter x 4 mm depth) and inoculated with a
4 mm mycelial plug taken from a 7- to 10-day old culture on PDA and wrapped with Parafilm. Plugs
taken from sterile PDA were used as a control. Inoculated fruit were stored at 25°C in fruit trays in
plastic bins for 7 days. Six fruit composed a replicate, and the experiment was repeated for a total of
two replications. Lesions developed within 48 hours and expanded to an average of 28.5 mm by day 7.
No lesions were observed on control fruit. Symptoms observed on inoculated pears were the same as
the decay observed on the original pear obtained from cold storage. Fungal colonies isolated from the
lesions and cultured on PDA morphologically resembled the original isolate from the infected pear. In
2014, F. avenaceum was first reported in the United States to cause post-harvest decay of apples in
Pennsylvania (Kou et al. 2014). In the Netherlands, F. avenaceum has been reported to cause
postharvest decay of ‘Conference’ pears but was observed at low frequencies (1-5%) in packing-house
surveys (Wenneker et al. 2016). Fusarium spp. was also recently found on European pears in Southern
Oregon (KC and Rasmussen 2020). F. avenaceum can produce mycotoxins which is a concern for fruit
processing (Munkvold et al. 2021). Monitoring for this pathogen to prevent losses and mycotoxin
contamination of processed fruit products will be import for consumer safety. To our knowledge, this is
the first report of F. avenaceum causing postharvest decay of European pear in the Mid-Atlantic region
of the United States.

Funding: This research was supported by the United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural
Research Service appropriated projects 8080-21000-030-000-D and 8080-21000-029-000-D. Mention of
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trade names or commercial products in this publication is solely for the purpose of providing specific
information and does not imply recommendation or endorsement by the USDA. USDA is an equal
opportunity provider and employer.

References

KC, A. N. and Rasmussen, A. L. 2020. Plant Health Prog. 22:27. https://doi.org/10.1094/PHP-07-20-0057-


RS

Kou, L. P. et al. 2014. Plant Dis. 98:690. https://doi.org/10.1094/PDIS-07-13-0803-PDN

Moura, R.D. et al. 2020. J. Microbiol. Methods. 173:105915.


https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mimet.2020.105915

Munkvold, G. P. et al. 2021. Ann. Rev. Phytopathol. 59:373. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-phyto-


020620-102825

Sardella, D. et al. 2016. Int. J. of Fruit Sci. 16:351. https://doi.org/10.1080/15538362.2016.1178621

Stielow, J. B. et al. 2015. Persoonia. 35:242. https://doi.org/10.3767/003158515X689135

Wenneker, M. et al. 2016. Plant Dis. 100:1950. https://doi.org/10.1094/PDIS-01-16-0029-PDN


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Figure S1. Fusarium avenaceum isolate WV21P1A; (A) Disease symptoms observed on pears in cold
storage and after wound inoculation. (B) Growth of isolate on potato dextrose agar (PDA) after 6
days. (C) Macroconidia stained with lactophenol cotton blue and visualized with Zeiss Axio Zoom
V16 stereo microscope at 260x magnification. (D) Lesion development 7 days post wounding and
inoculation with either 4 mm Fusarium avenaceum plugs taken from 7- to 10-day old cultures or
sterile PDA plugs.

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