Abstract

LAUREANO-AHUELICAN, Bruno et al. Etiology of black scab on prickly pear (Opuntia ficus-indica) in Mexico. Rev. mex. fitopatol [online]. 2021, vol.39, n.2, pp.329-338.  Epub Nov 03, 2021. ISSN 2007-8080.  https://doi.org/10.18781/r.mex.fit.2101-3.

To identify the agent of black scab on prickly pear (Opuntia ficus-indica), the fungi associated with the disease were isolated and morphologically identified. The study was carried out from cladodes with characteristic symptoms of the disease collected in the town of Santa Cecilia Clavijero, in the municipality of San Juan Ixcaquixtla, Puebla. The fungi associated with the disease were identified as: Cladosporium cladosporioides, Aplosporella hesperidica and Didymella glomerata. To demonstrate their pathogenicity, the fungi were inoculated individually and in their combinations in six-month-old cladodes. Symptoms started 50 days after inoculation. The inoculation method that allowed the reproduction of the symptoms was the injection of a suspension at a concentration of 6 × 103 conidia mL-1 of the mixture of the three fungi; cladodes inoculated with one and two fungi, did not result in the development of the disease. C. cladosporioides, A. hesperidica and D. glomerata are the causative agents of the nopal black scab, this being the first report of these pathogens in the nopal cultivation.

Keywords : Pathogenicity; Koch’s postulates; inoculation; cladodes.

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