Characterization of Pythium chondricola associated with red rot disease of Pyropia yezoensis (Ueda) (Bangiales, Rhodophyta) from Lianyungang, China

Pyropia yezoensis (formerly Porphyra yezoensis) is an economically important red alga that is cultured extensively in China. The red rot disease occurs commonly during Pyropia cultivation, causing serious economic losses. An incidence of red rot disease was found in a P. yezoensis farm from mid-November to mid-December 2015 at Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province, China. Histopathological examination revealed that the naturally infected thalli were infected apparently by a pathogen, leading to red rot symptoms. The causative agent was isolated and identified as the oomycete Pythium chondricola by morphological analysis and sequence analysis of the internal transcribed spacer and cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 (cox1). In artificial infection experiments on the P. yezoensis blades, the P. chondricola isolate was able to cause the same characteristic histopathology seen in natural infections. P. chondricola grew well at a wide range of temperatures in the range 8–31°C, salinities at 0–15 and pH 5–9. In an orthogonal test used to determine the effects of environmental factors (temperature, salinity, and zoospore concentration) on infection, the data revealed that temperature was the most important factor to affect red rot disease development, with the optimal conditions for disease expansion being 20°C, 35 salinity, and a zoospore concentration of 106 zoospores/mL. The results obtained from the present study prompted us to set up a comprehensive epidemiological study on Pyropia, which will provide support to maintain the healthy development of the Pyropia industry in China.