Quambalaria eucalypti was recently reported as the causal agent of leaf spot and stem curl in Eucalyptus spp. in Brazil. Given the scarcity of knowledge available on this pathosystem our objectives were to evaluate the "in vitro" mycelial growth and sporulation of this fungus in different culture media, determine the optimum temperature of mycelial growth, sporulation and conidial germination, evaluate the influence of the lighting regime on conidial germination and determine the combined influence of time and temperature in a moisture chamber on the disease severity. Temperatures of 25, 13 and 37 ºC were found to be the optimum, minimum and maximum for growth, respectively. The optimum temperature for sporulation was 25 ºC. The interaction between growth medium and isolates was significant and potato dextrose-agar (PDA), V8-agar (V8) and vegetable broth-agar produced the most mycelial growth, followed by hydrolyzed casein-agar and water-agar. On the other hand, the interaction between culture medium and isolates was not significant for sporulation, although PDA appeared to favor spore production by this pathogen. Temperature and lighting regime did not significantly affect conidial germination, with 85 % of medium rate. The interaction between temperature and time of exposition in a moisture chamber was not significant for severity of disease. A quadratic model best represented disease severity as a function of temperature, with estimated optimum 27 ºC. An exponential model best represented disease severity as a function of moisture chamber.
Eucalyptus; temperature; light; leaf wetness; culture media; eucalyptus leaf spot; stem curl
