Growth of Cultures of Alternaria alternata from leaves of Actinidia arguta are inhibited by 1,4‐dimethylnaphthalene

Alternaria alternata is a pathogenic fungus known to cause leaf spot in many plant species such as apples, purple coneflower, onions and many others. Actinidia arguta (hardy kiwifruit) is an alternative crop which has commercial potential in the United States. Field trials of A. arguta , located at Lake Erie Regional Grape Research and Extension Center, presented leaf lesions which suggested the presence of a pathogen. Leaf samples were taken from multiple symptomatic vines and allowed to incubate in empty sterile petri dishes. Symptomatic sections, approximately 1 cm2, were cut from the leaves and placed onto fresh potato dextrose agar (PDA) plates and incubated at 25°C for three days. Several fungal species were present on the plates with one fungal species common among all leaf samples plated. All visibly different species were isolated onto separate PDA plates, incubated, and re‐plated until purified cultures were obtained. PCR amplification of the 18 ITS region was accomplished using degenerate primers and DNA products were identified using Sanger sequencing. Resultant sequences were analyzed with BLASTn against the NCBI database. Cultures of A. alternata were identified as present on multiple leaf lesions. Established cultures were treated with 1,4‐dimethylnaphthalene (DMN) in a 9.5 Liter BBL GasPak chambers for two days. Mycelial growth was inhibited by DMN relative to control cultures. This is the first report of A. alternata isolated from the leaves of A. arguta and a demonstration that DMN can inhibit growth of this fungal species. Support or Funding Information Funded in part from a grant from the 1,4‐Group of Meridian, ID and the Behrend College Undergraduate Research Fund This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal .