Identification and characterisation of fungi associated with kedondong (spondias dulcis) diseases in Sarawak

This study was done for the purposes to identify fungi associated with kedondong diseases based on \nmorphological characteristics and molecular analyses and to study the physiological characteristics the effect \nof different temperature and pH on the growth of isolated fungi. Infected fruits, leaves and petioles of \nkedondong were taken from Bintulu, Batu Kawa, Kuching and also brought from the Stutong market. \nDiseases found on kedondong were greyish-black fruit spots, greyish-brown fruit spots, brown fruit spots, \nblack fruit spots, brown fruit rot, dry fruit rot, black leaf spots, brown lesions leaf spots, leaf tip lesion and \nshiny grey symptom petioles. Infected parts were inoculated onto Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA) media. The \nfungi identified associated with the diseases were Phomopsis phyllanthicola, Pestalotiopsis microspora, \nColletotrichum sp., Epicoccum sorghinum, Botryodiplodia sp., Fusarium sp., Xylaria sp. Aspergillus flavus, \nCurvularia sp. and two unidentified fungi. The molecular identification of three fungal isolates (P. \nphyllanthicola, P. microspora and E. sorghinum) was supported by ITS sequence analysis. The growth of the \nfungi at the different temperature showed that most of the fungi grew significantly faster at temperature 25 oC. \nEffect of pH was varied depending on the fungal isolates. All the fungi were able to grow in the range of pH \n3 to pH 8.