Phytophthora chlamydospora and P. megasperma associated with root and crown rot of sour cherry in Turkey

Sour cherry is a very important commercial crop of Turkey. In a newly established orchard in Ankara province of Turkey, some of young sour cherry trees did not leaf out or collapsed after a while turning green in spring, 2014. Lateral and hairy roots of symptomatic trees showed poor growth. Occurrence of necrotic and decay tissues girdling the whole roots resulted in tree mortality. Two Phytophthora spp. were isolated from necrotic tissues on taproots and crowns. The pathogens were identified as Phytophthora chlamydospora and P. megasperma based on morphological characteristics and DNA sequences of the internal transcribed spacer region. Pathogenicity of the isolates was tested by stem inoculation to sour cherry seedlings. P. chlamydospora caused canker lesions and killed the seedlings within 4 weeks, while no cankers occurred on stem of the plants inoculated with P. megasperma and on control plants. Also P. megasperma was found as pathogen on roots of sour cherry seedlings in soil infestation test. This is the first report of P. chlamydospora and P. megasperma causing crown and root rot of sour cherry in Turkey. In addition, P. chlamydospora is a new pathogen of sour cherry grafted on Prunus mahaleb.