| Summary: | Passion fruit (<i>Passiflora edulis</i> Sims.) is an ever-increasing interest crop in Italy because it is mainly cultivated for its edible fruit and, secondly, as an ornamental evergreen climber. During the summer of 2020, two-year-old plants of purple passion fruit in one of the most important expanding production areas of Sicily (southern Italy) showed symptoms of yellowing, wilting, and vascular discoloration. <i>Fusarium</i>-like fungal colonies were consistently yielded from symptomatic crown and stem tissues. Five representative isolates were characterized by a morphological and molecular analysis based on a multilocus phylogeny using RNA polymerase’s second largest subunit (RPB2) and translation elongation factor 1-alpha (EF-1α) genes, as <i>Fusarium nirenbergiae</i> (<i>Fusarium oxysporum</i> species complex). Pathogenicity tests conducted on healthy 1-year-old passion fruit cuttings revealed symptoms similar to those observed in the field. To our knowledge, this is the first report of Fusarium wilt on passion fruit caused by <i>Fusarium nirenbergiae.</i> This report focuses on the phytopathological implications of this fungal pathogen, which may represent a future significant threat for the expanding passion fruit production in Italy and Europe.
|
|---|