Phomopsis castanea, a seed-borne endophyte in chestnut trees

Phomopsis castanea (Sacc.) Hohn was found to occur endophytically in plant parts of European chestnut including flowers, leaves, shoots and fruits, wh en apparently healthy trees of four cultivars were sampled seven times thro ughout 1 year. This fungus is associated with the important post-harvest di sease Phomopsis nut rot. The fungus was also shown to be endophytic in seed lings of the cultivar Perron's hide, and seed transmitted. There were appar ent differences in the incidence of P. castanea isolated between the four c ultivars and the two sites tested. The incidence of plant parts yielding P. castanea was highest for cultivar Marone at both sites, and lower for cult ivars Sword, Buffalo Queen and Lucente. The plant parts with the highest in cidence of P. castanea were the burr, the male flower, the stigma and style , and 1-year-old and 2-year-old shoots; those with the lowest incidence wer e the 3-year-old and 4-year-old xylem, the inner peduncle and the nut kerne l. There were no apparent trends in the incidence of the fungus recovered f rom plant parts at different times of the year.