LAUSR

In 2019‚ landrace garlic bulbs (Allium sativum L.) showing brown‚ water-soaking lesions often covered by yellowish mould‚ were obtained from a storehouse of Foggia province‚ southern Italy. The symptoms were observed on 30% of stored bulbs. Surface-sterilized rotted portions were plated on PDA containing streptomycin and ampicillin (250 mg/L each)‚ incubated at 24 ± 1 °C in the dark‚ and sub-cultured on MEA. After 7 day-incubation‚ colonies were 23–30 mm‚ plane‚ floccose‚ eventually with a raised centre; mycelium was yellowish-white to grey‚ and sporulation in the colony centre was strong yellow to light olive brown; a slightly pronounced light to vivid yellow soluble pigment was released in the medium. Vesicle was pyriform or globose‚ biseriate; metulae broadening toward the top‚ usually 6–25 × 5–9 μm‚ covering 3/4 to entire vesicle; phialides ampulliform‚ 6–11.5 × 3–6 μm; conidia were 3.5–5 × 3–4.5 μm‚ colourless‚ globose or subglobose‚ coarsely roughened and yellow–brown to brown at maturity. Those characteristics identified the fungus as Aspergillus europaeus (Hubka et al. 2016). For confirmation ‚ DNA of a representative isolate was amplified using primers CMD5/CMD6 (Samson et al. 2014). The amplicon (GenBank accession No. MN792638) showed 100% identity with another A. europaeus sequence (LN909007). The strain FV3 was deposited in the fungal collection at CIHEAMBari (Italy). For pathogenicity tests‚ surface-sterilized garlic cloves were pinprick-inoculated with 100 conidia of A. europaeus. Sterile distilled water was used as an uninoculated control. After 7 days at 25 ± 1 °C‚ typical symptoms developed only on inoculated bulbs. The re-isolated fungus corresponded to A. europaeus‚ fulfilling Koch’s postulates. To the best of our knowledge A. europaeus have never been described on garlic‚ and thus this is the first report of A. europaeus causing postharvest rot of garlic bulbs obtained from storage in Italy. Effective control measures need to be adopted to prevent losses during storage and shelf-life