Widespread QoI Fungicide Resistance Revealed Among Corynespora cassiicola Tomato Isolates in Florida

Abstract

Target spot of tomato caused by Corynespora cassiicola is one of the most economically destructive diseases of tomato in Florida. A collection of 123 isolates from eight counties in Florida were evaluated for sensitivity to azoxystrobin and fenamidone based on mycelial growth inhibition (MGI), spore germination (SG), detached leaflet assays (DLAs), and sequence-based analysis of the cytochrome b gene (cytb). Cleavage of cytb by restriction enzyme (Fnu4HI) revealed the presence of a mutation conferring a glycine (G) to alanine (A) mutation at amino acid position 143 (G143A) in approximately 90% of the population, correlating with quinone outside inhibitor (QoI) resistance based on MGI (<40% at 5 μg/ml), SG (<50% at 1 and 10 μg/ml), and DLA (<10% severity reduction). The mutation conferring a phenylalanine (F) to leucine (L) substitution at position 129 (F129L) was confirmed in moderately resistant isolates (#9, #19, and #74) based on MGI (40 to 50% at 5 μg/ml), SG (<50% at 1 μg/ml and >50% at 10 μg/ml), and DLA (>10% and <43% severity reduction) for both QoI fungicides, whereas sensitive isolates (#1, #4, #7, #28, #29, #46, #61, #74, #75, #76, #91, #95, and #118) based on MGI (>50% at 5 μg/ml), SG (>50% at 1 μg/ml and 10 μg/ml), and DLA (>50% severity reduction) correlated to non-mutation-containing isolates or those with a silent mutation. This study indicates that QoI resistance among C. cassiicola isolates from tomato is widespread in Florida and validates rapid screening methods using MGI or molecular assays to identify resistant isolates in future studies.