Dieback of rose caused by Acremonium sclerotigenum as a new causal agent of rose dieback in Iran

Severe dieback of rose has been recently observed in several rose greenhouses in Fars province of Iran. During 2014 and 2015, stems of rose plants showing yellow to brown discoloration and dieback were collected from rose greenhouses. Coniothyrium fuckelii, Botrytis cinerea and Acremonium were subsequently isolated from the margin between healthy and symptomatic tissue. B. cinerea and C. fuckelii isolates were similar to those previously reported for dieback of rose worldwide. Morphological and cultural characters along with molecular analysis based on partial sequences of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of the ribosomal RNA genome allowed confirming the affiliation of the Acremonium isolates, corresponding to A. sclerotigenum as a new causal agent of rose dieback. To determine its pathogenicity on rose, Koch's postulates were fulfilled by stem inoculation of nine rose cultivars under greenhouse conditions. While A. sclerotigenum is considered as a soil-born pathogen, and produces sclerotia that are resistant to adverse conditions enables the fungus to survive extended period in soil, propagule trapping in our study revealed that conidia can become airborn, imply that an aerial phase, forms an important component of the disease cycle.