The Kunming Plant Institute has made new progress in the research of morel fungal diseases

Morel mushrooms are world-famous rare edible fungi with strong
market demand.
Since 2012, China has realized the artificial field cultivation of morels, and between 2021 and 2022, it has developed into an emerging edible fungus species
with an annual planting scale of 250,000 mu.
According to statistics, in China, nearly 25% of the planting area of morels are attacked by diseases every year, of which fungal diseases are particularly prominent, but their treatment groups and basic characteristics are not clear
.

Recently, the Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences collected the disease ascomycetes from 32 morel cultivation bases in 18 provinces (municipalities directly under the central government), combined with ITS amplicon sequencing analysis, microscopy and pathogen isolation and identification to study the epidemiological characteristics of morel fungal diseases, and the results showed: Diplo? sporalongispora(75.
48%)，Clonostachyssolani(5.
04%)，Mortierellagamsii(0.
83%)，Mortierellaamoeboidea (0.
37%), Penicillium kongii (0.
15%) is a presumed pathogen with higher abundance; Oblong oval septal asexual spores of D.
longispora were detected in all ascomycete lesions; Similar oval asexual spores and spore-producing structures
to those of Clonostachys were also detected in samples with a high abundance of C.
solani.

At the same time, seven ascomycete lesions were selected for pathogenic bacteria isolation, culture and ITS phylogenetic analysis, and it was determined that these isolated strains were all D.
longispora, and the microscopic characteristics of pure culture strains were consistent
with the characteristics of ascomycetes.
Combined with the high abundance exhibited by D.
longispora in 93.
75% of specimens, C.
solani showed higher abundance in 6 (6.
25%) biological specimens at 2 sampling points, and it was considered D.
longispora It is the most important pathogenic bacterium of morel fungal diseases, and other potential pathogens may be native to the ascomycetes or breeding groups caused by infection
.
This study clarified the core species and morphological and microscopic characteristics caused by morel fungal diseases, which laid a foundation
for further planting prevention and control.

The results were published online in the Journal of Fungi, a regional journal of Mycology Region I
, under the title Epidemic Identification of Fungal Diseases in Morchella Cultivation across China.
Dr.
Shi Xiaofei and Dr.
Liu Dong of Kunming Institute of Botany are the co-first authors of the paper, and Dr.
Liu Wei and Dr.
Yu Fuqiang are the co-corresponding authors
of the paper.
The research was supported
by the National Key R&D Program of China (2021YFD1600404) and the Basic Research Project of Yunnan Science and Technology Department (202101AT070541).

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