Morphological and molecular identification of Monilinia spp. causing blossom blight and fruit rot on sweet cherries in the Aegean region of Turkey

Brown rot (Monilinia spp.) on sweet cherries causes blossom blight and fruit rot at pre- and post-harvest stages. In this study, surveys were carried out in the Aegean Region in 2015, 2016 and 2017. In these surveys, it was determined that the prevalence of Monilinia spp. causing blossom blight ranged from 2.6% to 20.6% and and fruit rot from 5.3% to 10.8% in sweet cherry orchards, respectively. Additionally, the prevalence of Monilinia spp. causing fruit rot ranged from 6.2% to 18.7% at the packing houses. According to the morphological and microscopic characteristics, the 11 M. laxa and 21 Monilinia fructicola isolates were identified. In the phylogenetic analysis using the sequences of ITS-5.8S rDNA gene, M. laxa and M. fructicola were clustered in the same branch with the reference isolates. The aim of this study is to make a detailed morphological and molecular identification of the causal agent of pre- and post-harvest brown rot on sweet cherry in Turkey.