First report of Fusarium concentricum and F. verticillioides causing leaf spot on Trachelospermum jasminoides in China

Trachelospermum jasminoides (Lindl.) Lem. Is widely used in landscaping. In August 2023, leaf spot disease in T. jasminoides was observed in the city parks and foresty districts of Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China. Symptoms of the disease include gray‒white spots of different sizes and round or irregular shapes, and late leaf spots are very prone to crumbling, the formation of perforation symptoms, and leaf scorching and shedding. Pathogenic fungi were isolated from diseased leaves and identified as Fusarium concentricum and F. verticillioides on the basis of morphological features and multilocus phylogenetic analyses of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region, RNA polymerase II subunit B (RPB2), calmodulin (CaM), β-tubulin (TUB2) and translation elongation factor 1-alpha (TEF1-α) gene sequences. Pathogenicity tests revealed that F. concentricum and F. verticillioides can cause leaf spot on T. jasminoides. This study is the first report of F. concentricum and F. verticillioides causing leaf spot on T. jasminoides in China and provides a solid theoretical foundation for the scientific prevention and control of this disease.