Quambalaria eucalypti found on Eucalyptus in Indonesia

The Eucalyptus plantation industry in Indonesia has expanded rapidly during the last few decades. During routine nursery disease surveys, symptoms of a leaf and shoot blight disease were detected on Eucalyptus mother plants. Isolates were obtained from symptomatic tissues and identified using DNA sequence analyses. Phylogenetic analyses showed that the isolates were those of Quambalaria eucalypti. Pathogenicity tests were conducted with isolates of Q. eucalypti on clones of E. pellita and E. grandis x E. pellita hybrids. These resulted in symptoms similar to those observed on naturally infected plants. Eucalyptus genotypes tested showed variation in their susceptibility, highlighting the potential to select and breed for resistance and thus to manage future outbreaks of the disease. This is the first report of the pathogen in Indonesia as well as in Southeast Asia.