Effect of culture medium light and air circulation on sporulation of <i>Neonectria ditissima</i>

Abstract

In culture most isolates of Neonectria ditissima the causal organism of European canker do not produce conidia Those that do often produce singlecelled conidia rather than the typical multicelled conidia that are found in nature A series of experiments was conducted to determine the conditions needed for conidium production Four culture media (malt extract agar modified Matsushimas medium (MM) apple sap amended water agar (ASAWA) and water agar) five light regimes including darkness near ultra violet (NUV) light and white fluorescent light and three plate sealing patterns were tested Subculturing isolates producing large numbers of viable conidia of which 71 produced multicelled conidia Similarly under a white fluorescent light/darkness regime all isolates produced viable conidia on MM and ASAWA and 100 and 97 of the isolates produced multicelled conidia respectively