First Report of pineapple fruit rot caused by Fusarium sacchari in the northeast region of Brazil

The fungus Fusarium sp. is the major phytosanitary problem affecting the pineapple (Ananas comosus) crop in Brazil. Its occurrence influences the fruit commercialization, with losses estimated at 30-40% (³). Symptoms in the fruits may include brown lesions and discoloration; rotted or sunken skin and stem; exudate; dry leaf rot; bent stems; chlorosis, and natural cracks (⁴). In Brazil, Santos et al. collected ten fruits with symptoms of exudate and rot from the county Alhandra, Paraiba State (7°25’56.1“S, 34°54’42.3“W). Symptomatic fruits were sanitized with 2% hypochlorite during 30 seconds, washed twice with sterile water for 30 seconds and repotted from Petri dishes into a potato-dextrose-agar (PDA) culture medium. The 30 plates were incubated at 25°C for five days to allow growth. For purification, monospore cultures were transferred to PDA plates. The macroconidia were hyaline, cylindrical, slightly falcate, and had 1-5 septa, measuring 21.3-65.0 μm in length and 2.4-5.1 μm in width (Figure 1F). Microconidia were aseptic, ellipsoid or reniform, measuring 4.1-16.8 μm in length and 1.4-2.7 μm in width (Figure 1E). On PDA at 25 °C, colonies reached 60 mm in diameter five days after incubation, showing lavender-colored outer edges (Figure 1D). There is little information on the distribution of F. sacchari. The isolates were identified as F. sacchari based on morphology and molecular analysis of gene elongation factor 1α (TEF1-α) and RNA polymerase 2 (RPB2), thus suggesting that other Fusarium species may exist. In comparison, tree alignments for F. sacchari (KU604435, KU604433, KU604431) confirmed 100% similarity (Figure 1G). The sequences with CFS 213 isolates (ON751964 and ON751965) were confirmed to be F. sacchari (¹). For the pathogenicity test, 40 fruits (20 wounded and 20 whole fruits) were used and sanitized before use. Ten wounded and ten whole fruits were inoculated with 5 uL spore suspension (5 x 10⁶ spores/mL). The 20 control fruits were inoculated in the same sequence with pure water. Each fruit was inoculated in four regions. The wounded fruits were inoculated with a sterile wooden toothpick (2 mm) and left in an incubation chamber at 80% relative humidity, 27°C, and 12h photoperiod. Inoculated fruits showed rot symptoms similar to those in the field (Figure 1B), while control fruits remained symptomless (Figure 1A) (²). The newly identified RPB2 gene for Fusarium species should be included in phylogenetic analyses (⁵). Fusarium ananatum and F. guttiforme were identified in pineapple based on (TEF1-α) gene (⁵). This is the first report of the fungus F. sacchari causing pineapple fruit rot in Brazil.

Figure 1
Fruit rot symptoms in pineapple (A: no symptoms; B: rot symptoms); cultural morphology (C: growth and staining; D: growth and plaque bottom) and spores of F. sacchari (E: microconidia; F: macroconidia). The phylogenetic trees were built using MEGA X software for maximum parsimony (G). The number of substitutions was used to measure the length of branches on a tree. One Thousand replicates were used in the bootstrap analysis.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The first author thanks the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES), for the doctorate scholarship, and the Rural Federal University of Pernambuco, for the opportunity to study in this institution.

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REFERÊNCIAS

• ¹ Paul, S. K.; Mahmud, N.U.; Gupta, D.R.; Alam, M.N.; Chakraborty, M.; Islam, M.T. First Report of Fusarium sacchari Causing Sugarcane Wilt in Bangladesh. Plant Disease, New York, EUA, v.106, n.1, p.319. 2022.
• ² Sapak, Z.; Mohd Faisol Mahadeven, A.N.; Nurul Farhana, M.H.; 1Norsahira, S. and Mohd Zafri, A.W. A review of common diseases of pineapple: the causal pathogens, disease symptoms, and available control measures. Food Research, Malasia, v.5, p.1-14, 2021.
• ³ Stepien, L.; Koczyk, G.; Waskiewicz, A. Diversity of Fusarium species and mycotoxins contaminating pineapple. Journal of Applied Genetics, Poznań Polish, v.54, p.367-380, 2013.
• ⁴ Vignassa, M.; Meile, J.C.; Chiroleu, F.; Soria, C.; Leneveu-Jenvrin, C.; Schorr-Galindo, S.; Chillet, M. Pineapple Mycobiome Related to Fruitlet Core Rot Occurrence and the Influence of Fungal Species Dispersion Patterns. Journal of fungi, Basel Switzerland, v.7, n.3, p.175, 2021.
• ⁵ Yilmaz, N.; Sandoval-Denis, M.; Lombard, L.; Visagie, C.; Wingfield, B.D.; Crous, P.W.. Redefining species limits in the Fusarium fujikuroi species complex. Persoonia: Molecular Phylogeny and Evolution of Fungi, Utrecht, Netherlands, v.34, p.29-162, 2021.

Edited by

• EDITOR CIENTÍFICO:
  Edson Luiz Furtado https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6924-835X

• EDITOR ASSOCIADO:
  José Otávio Machado Menten https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9644-5770

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  15 May 2026
• Date of issue
  2026

History

• Received
  22 Mar 2023
• Accepted
  24 May 2024