S14 - Session P5 - Fungal community in almond trees from Alentejo region

Authors: Ana Luísa Ferreira Faustino *, M. Margarida Oliveira, M. Rosário Félix, Liliana Marum

Fungal pathogens are responsible for severe economic losses mainly by the production of mycotoxins and fungal canker diseases. In almond trees, canker diseases may affect the trunk and branches influencing the plant health and productivity. In severe cases, these diseases can lead to the death of the orchards. Several members of the family Botryosphaeriaceae and Diatrypaceae, and the genera of Collophorina , Pleurostoma and Phaeoacremonium have been associated with the appearance of this type of pathologies in diverse plantations worldwide. Besides that, some species of Aspergillus , Fusarium and Penicillium are responsible for the production of a wide range of mycotoxins that contaminate almonds. In Portugal, Phomopsis amygdali , the causal agent of twig canker, was isolated from affected shoots of almond trees [1] , species of Aspergillus have been also isolated from Tras-os-Montes almonds [2] and members of the genera Fusarium and Alternaria have been recently isolated from symptomatic almond trees from Alentejo [3] . Almond is a traditional Portuguese culture in Algarve and Tras-os-Montes, however, new orchards have been introduced in the Alentejo region in the last years. The majority of the new plantations have been performed using foreign cultivars with good levels of productivity and great commercial value, but some phytosanitary problems have been already detected [3] . Identifying the fungal community present in plantations is an important step to control and design new strategies for future disease management. This work aims to identify and characterize the fungal communities present in almond trees from different samples collected from asymptomatic and symptomatic trees collected from two different fields in the Alentejo region. New phytopathogenic and endophytic fungi will be characterized by molecular techniques, namely DNA amplification (targeting internal transcribed spacer regions of nuclear rDNA) and Sanger sequencing, in order to better plan and manage almond orchards and produce high-quality products.