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. 2023 Sep 18;12(18):3305.
doi: 10.3390/plants12183305.

First Report of Hemp Fusarium Wilt Caused by Fusarium oxysporum in Croatia

Tomislav Duvnjak  1 , Karolina Vrandecic  2 , Aleksandra Sudaric  1   3 , Jasenka Cosic  2 , Tamara Siber  2 , Maja Matosa Kocar  1
Affiliations

First Report of Hemp Fusarium Wilt Caused by Fusarium oxysporum in Croatia

Tomislav Duvnjak et al. Plants (Basel). .

Abstract

Wilted hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) plants were observed in August 2019 in commercial fields around Osijek, Croatia. Plants and roots with disease symptoms were collected. The single-spored isolates produced septate cottony white to light pink aerial mycelium and purple undersurface on potato dextrose agar (PDA). Smooth and hyaline hyphae were branched and septate. Macroconidia were fusiform to sickle-shaped with foot-shaped basal cells, elongated apical cells and three to five septa. Sequencing of the internal transcribed spacer and the partial elongation factor 1-α gene identified the species as Fusarium oxysporum. Artificial infection fulfills Koch's postulates, producing plants which show stunted growth and wilt symptoms similar to those observed in the commercial fields. Control seedlings remained symptomless and healthy. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of hemp Fusarium wilt causing F. oxysporum in Croatia. Considering that F. oxysporum has been reported in main field crops in Croatia, the presence of this pathogen could cause economically significant hemp production decreases, especially in humid and cold springs and susceptible varieties.

Keywords: Croatia; Fusarium oxysporum; hemp; wilt.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Fusarium wilt of hemp caused by Fusarium oxysporum. (a) Leaf symptoms of F. oxysporum on hemp in the field; (b) Root symptoms.
Figure 2
Figure 2
(a) 12-day-old colony of F. oxysporum on Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA) plate (90 mm), front and back; (b) microconidia of F. oxysporum.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Phylogenetic tree inferred from Bayesian analysis on sequences of the concatenated dataset of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region and translation elongation factor (TEF1-α) of 46 representative species of Fusarium. Bayesian posterior probabilities are indicated beside nodes. Fusarium staphyleae (NRRL22316 and CBS 125482) obtained from GenBank were treated as the outgroup. Our isolate HFox1 (red box) is GenBank accession number OM475708 (ITS) and OR149071 (TEF1-α).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Symptoms of F. oxysporum artificial infection in laboratory conditions (a) Wilt symptoms begin with an upward curing of leaf tips; (b) Wilted leaves dry to a yellow-tan color and hang on the plant without falling off; (c) Control plants.
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