First Report of Aspergillus niger as a Plant Pathogen on Zingiber officinale from India

Zingiber officinale Rosc., belonging to the Zingiberaceae family, is medicinally important. It is commonly known as ginger and has been extensively cultivated for many centuries for use as a spice and traditional medicine in India. During a survey in September of 2007, leaves of Z. officinale showed a necrotic leaf spot disease on a plant growing in Kolhapur, India. Symptoms of the disease appeared as small (10 to 15 mm), rectangular to irregular, yellow spots on the leaves that covered a major area of the leaf when severe. The infection caused defoliation. Symptomatic leaves were collected and isolations from infected leaves were made on Czapek's Dox agar supplemented with streptomycin sulfate (30 mg/l). Plates were incubated at 28 to 30°C for 6 to 7 days. The fungal colonies were colorless to pale on the reverse side and covered with a dense layer of dark brown-to-black conidial heads. Conidia were globose to subglobose (3.5 to 5.0 μm in diameter), dark brown to black, and rough walled. 16S rRNA of isolates was amplified and sequenced (EMBL Accession No. AM941157) and compared with sequences of known Aspergillus species obtained from GenBank. The closest matches (99% identity) were with A. niger. On the basis of morphological and molecular approaches, the pathogen was confirmed as A. niger. Of five isolates, AN-5 was used for pathogenicity study. Koch's postulates were satisfied after reisolating the fungus from leaves inoculated with a conidial suspension that showed symptoms (6 days after inoculation) similar to the lesions observed on the leaves collected from Z. officinale. The tests were repeated three times in the greenhouse. Healthy, potted Z. officinale plants were grown in isolation after artificial inoculation with a suspension of spores (10,000 conidia per ml), which was prepared in 100 ml of sterile distilled water and then sprayed on the abaxial and adaxial surface of leaves. Noninoculated plants served as controls. These results confirmed the pathogenicity of A. niger on Z. officinale. To our knowledge, this is the first report of A. niger causing a disease on ginger (1). Reference: (1) G. N. Dake. J. Spices Aromatic Crops. 4:40, 1995.