Elsinoë punicae causing scab of pomegranates in South Africa does not cause disease on citrus

Elsinoë punicae was shown to be responsible for a new disease on pomegranates in South Africa. This disease has been found in three of the pomegranate production areas in the Cape provinces, and is characterised by scab-like symptoms on the fruit and brown spots on the leaves. Representative isolates were characterised by morphology, cultural growth and sequencing of the ITS. Additionally, the LSU, rpb2 and TEF1-α gene regions were also sequenced for one representative isolate from pomegranate. Phylogenetic analyses of the four loci confirmed the isolates as E . punicae . RAPD analyses were also performed with three primers on 19 isolates of E . punicae . The analyses showed that E . punicae isolates clustered together with high support apart from the reference isolates of E. australis , E. fawcetti and E. australis pathotype jojoba. Pathogenicity tests were conducted with E. punicae and two reference isolates ( E. australis , E. fawcetti - Citrus pathogens) on whole plant leaves and detached leaves of pomegranate and different citrus types [grapefruit, rough lemon, navels, Valencias and mandarins] in official quarantine facilities. The results confirmed E . punicae as a pathogen of pomegranate and not citrus.