Botrytis cinerea causing gray mold of Polygonatum sibiricum (Huang Jing) in China

Polygonatum sibiricum is a traditional Chinese medicinal herb and can also be used as tea and ornamental plant. During 2016 to 2018, a disease with symptoms similar to gray mold was extensively observed on leaves of P. sibiricum in the Sichuan Province of China. The pathogen was isolated from the diseased plants and identified as Botrytis cinerea based on the morphological features and Internal transcribed spacer (ITS), DNA dependent RNA polymerase subunit II gene (RPB2), heat-shock protein 60 gene (HSP60) and ATP-dependent RNA helicase DBP7 gene (MS547) all of which showed 99.89%-99.91% identities to the reported B. cinerea strains. Pathogenicity was confirmed through inoculation experiments fulfilling Koch's postulates. To our knowledge, this is the first report of B. cinerea causing gray mold disease on P. sibiricum in China.