Occurrence of stem rot disease of Hylocereus undatus in Bangladesh

• DOI: 10.1007/s42360-019-00166-1
• Publication Date: 2019-09-25T17:03:11Z
• Authors: Mohammad Mazharul...; Md. Muzahid E. Ra...; Md. Nazrul Islam; Md. Shamim Akhter; Firoza Khatun; Md. Lutfur Rahman; Biresh Kumar Goswami
• Keywords: 2. Zero hunger; 0303 health sciences; 03 medical and health sciences; 15. Life on land

A survey was conducted in commercially grown dragon fruit (Hylocereus undatus) orchards at the hills of Khagrachari district of Bangladesh to know the disease status. Stem rot is a devastating disease of dragon fruit, prevailed all over the hills of Khagrachari district that infected about 82% of plants with variable degree of disease severity. The typical symptom of the stem rot disease of dragon fruit was characterized by sunken lesion covered by black pycnidial mass on the surface with yellow margin. Based on the morphological, molecular characterization and pathogenicity test (Koch’s postulates) the fungus was identified as Diaporthe phaseolorum. So far, to our knowledge dragon fruit is the new natural host of D. phaseolorum, is the first report causing stem rot disease in Bangladesh.