IMA Fungus 4(1): 155-159, doi: 10.5598/imafungus.2013.04.01.14

The Myrtle rust pathogen, Puccinia psidii, discovered in Africa

Jolanda Roux^‡, Izette Greyling^‡, Teresa A. Coutinho^‡, Marcel Verleur^§, Michael J. Wingfeld^‡

‡ University of Pretoria, Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI), Department of Microbiology and Plant Pathology, Pretoria, South Africa§ Sappi Forests Ltd., Pietermaritzburg, South Africa

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY-NC 4.0), which permits to copy and distribute the article for non-commercial purposes, provided that the article is not altered or modified and the original author and source are credited.

Citation: Roux J, Greyling I, Coutinho TA, Verleur M, Wingfeld MJ (2013) The Myrtle rust pathogen, Puccinia psidii, discovered in Africa. IMA Fungus 4(1): 155-159. https://doi.org/10.5598/imafungus.2013.04.01.14

Abstract

Puccinia psidii, the cause of a disease today commonly referred to as Myrtle rust, is considered a high priority quarantine threat globally. It has a wide host range in the Myrtaceae and it is feared that it may result in significant damage to native ecosystems where these plants occur. The fungus is also of considerable concern to plantation forestry industries that propagate Australian Eucalyptus species. In May 2013, symptoms of a rust disease resembling those of P. psidii were observed on an ornamental Myrtaceous shrub in a garden in South Africa. The fungus was identified based on DNA sequence data of the ITS and 5.8S nrRNA gene regions and here we report, for the first time, the presence of P. psidii in Africa.

Keywords

Guava rust, Eucalyptus rust, Myrtus communis, Pucciniaceae, Uredo rangellii