Occurrence and identification of Basidiomycetous Fomitopsis species—the causal agent of Brown-rot in oil palm Elaeis guineensis in Johor, Malaysia

Abstract

Macrofungi belonging to the family “Polyporaceae” in the phylum Basidiomycota are among the commonplace causal agents of plant diseases. In the present study, we reported the molecular characterization of a macrofungi basidiomycetous brown-rot fungal phytopathogen Fomitopsis strain MM4. The fungal phytopatho-gen was identified and molecularly characterized from the infected stem and tissue of oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) in Kulai, Johor. The 18S rRNA nucleotide sequence of the fungal pathogen strain MM4 showed 99% similarity with partial sequences of Antrodia serialis maintained in the NCBI genebank database. The multiple sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis revealed that the fungus clustered into a single branch of a phylogenetic tree; hence the fungus was designated as Fom-itopsis meliae strain MM4. The pathogenicity test revealed significant differences (p ≤ 0.05) in disease severity caused by the characterized basidiomycetous brown-rot F. meliae fungal pathogen on oil palm seedlings. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of 18S rRNA F. meliae Basidiomycota brown-rot fungi infecting oil palm (Elaeis guineensis). The findings of this study thus support the diversity of pathogenic macrofungi affecting oil palm trees in Malaysia.