# First report of Fusarium oxysporum causing damping-off on Datura stramonium in France

Lolita Pilet, Carole Reibel, Nadine Gautheron, Véronique Edel-Hermann, Simon Giuliano, Michel Herbach, Jean-Philippe Guillemin, Christian Steinberg

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Lolita Pilet, Carole Reibel, Nadine Gautheron, Véronique Edel-Hermann, Simon Giuliano, et al.. First report of Fusarium oxysporum causing damping-off on Datura stramonium in France. New Disease Reports, 2024, 50 (2), pp.e12309. 10.1002/ndr2.12309. hal-04802678

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https://institut-agro-dijon.hal.science/hal-04802678v1

Submitted on 25 Nov 2024

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# First report of *Fusarium oxysporum* causing damping-off on *Datura stramonium* in France

L. Pilet<fnref n="1" />

C. Reibel<fnref n="1" />

N. Gautheron<fnref n="1" />

V. Edel-Hermann<fnref n="1" /> ID

S. Giuliano<fnref n="2" />

M. Herbach<fnref n="3" />

J.-P. Guillemin<fnref n="1" />

C. Steinberg<fnref n="1" />

**Correspondence**

V. Edel-Hermann, Agroecology, INRAE, Institut Agro, Université Bourgogne, Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, F-21000 Dijon, France. Email: veronique.edel-hermann@inrae.fr

**Funding information**

PhD ICE funding from the Burgundy-Franche-Comté region; Department of Plant Health and Environment, Grant/Award Number: INRAE IB_SPE2023-24

**KEYWORDS**

collar pinching, invasive weed, jimsonweed, thorn apple

*Datura stramonium* (jimsonweed, thorn apple) is a toxic, invasive weed of summer crops. It contaminates grains during harvest, causing health problems (Perharič et al., 2013; Mutebi et al., 2022). In July 2022, in a maize plot near Toulouse (France), c. 36 plants of *D. stramonium* per m<fnref n="2" /> were counted. One to two plants with crown shrinkage symptoms were detected every 10 m<fnref n="2" /> (Fig. 1). Fifteen diseased plants were collected. The stem base of each plant was surface disinfected, cut into pieces, and plated on malt extract agar. *Fusarium oxysporum*-like colonies grown from these fragments were purified by single-spore sub-culturing and preserved in the Microorganisms of Interest for Agriculture and Environment (MIAE) collection (INRAE Dijon, France). Colonies transferred onto potato dextrose agar for macroscopic observations exhibited white aerial mycelium, becoming progressively pink (Fig. 2). Microscopic examination of cultures on carnation leaf agar revealed oval single-celled microconidia and multicellular spindle-shaped macroconidia characteristic of *F. oxysporum* (Fig. 3; Nelson et al., 1983).

Isolate MIAE08148 was further identified based on its translation elongation factor 1-α sequence. This marker allows phylogenetic species recognition within the genus *Fusarium* (O'Donnell et al., 2015). The gene was amplified according to Edel-Hermann *et al.* (2015) and

sequenced (Genbank Accession No. OR947650). A BLASTn search showed 100% identity (461 bp out of 461 bp) with *F. oxysporum* (AF008483). A phylogenetic analysis confirmed the clustering of isolate MIAE08148 within the *F. oxysporum* species (Fig. 4).

The pathogenicity of *F. oxysporum* MIAE08148 was evaluated under controlled conditions using pre-germinated seeds of *D. stramonium* transplanted into trays of disinfected substrate (soil/perlite 70/30, v/v) inoculated with 50 mL of a conidial suspension (2×10⁶ conidia ml⁻<fnref n="1" />) four days before planting. Four trays, each containing 13 pre-germinated seeds, were incubated in a growth chamber for five weeks. Four control trays were mock inoculated with 50 mL malt extract and all experiments were performed three times. Five weeks post-inoculation, 91% of the emerging inoculated seedlings exhibited collar pinching, wilting and root necrosis, whereas control seedlings were asymptomatic (Fig. 5). Symptomatic seedlings were collected regularly throughout the test and fungi re-isolated from these seedlings had the same morphological traits as the inoculated isolate.

To our knowledge, *F. oxysporum* causing damping-off on *D. stramonium* has not been described previously in France or worldwide. The finding offers insights for the control of this toxic invasive plant.

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2024 The Author(s). *New Disease Reports* published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Society for Plant Pathology.

<footnote n="1">¹Agroecology, INRAE, Institut Agro, Université Bourgogne, Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, Dijon, France</footnote>

<footnote n="2">²Université de Toulouse, INP-PURPAN, UMR AGIR, Castanet-Toolson, France</footnote>

<footnote n="3">³Pole Agronomie, Coopérative Vivadour, Rascal, France</footnote>
<figure><img src="image_3.png" /><figcaption>**FIGURE 1** Diseased plant of *Datura stramonium* collected in the field and used to isolate MIAE08148</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_4.png" /><figcaption>**FIGURE 2** Colony morphology of isolate MIAE08148 on potato dextrose agar</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_5.png" /><figcaption>**FIGURE 3** Microconidia and macroconidia of isolate MIAE08148 observed microscopically on carnation leaf agar</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_6.png" /><figcaption>**FIGURE 4** Neighbour-joining tree of translation elongation factor 1-α sequences of *Fusarium oxysporum* and *F. redolens* (outgroup). Sequences are indicated by the species name, the strain and the Genbank accession number. The position of isolate MIAE08148 is highlighted in bold</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_7.png" /><figcaption>**FIGURE 5** Plant inoculated with isolate MIAE08148 collected 17 days after inoculation</figcaption></figure>
<figure><img src="image_8.png" /></figure>

## ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors would like to thank Elodie Gautheron for providing photos of *Fusarium oxysporum* MIAE08148. Lolita Pilet was financially supported by a PhD ICE funding from the Burgundy-Franche-Comté region. This research work was supported by the Department of Plant Health and Environment (INRAE IB_SPE2023-24).

## ORCID

V. Edel-Hermann https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3332-6555

## REFERENCES

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Mutebi, R.R., Ario, A.R., Nabatanzi, M., Kyamwine, I.R., Wibabara, Y., Muwereza, P. et al., (2022) Large outbreak of jimsonweed (*Datura stramonium*) poisoning due to consumption of contaminated humanitarian relief food: Uganda, March-April 2019. *BMC Public Health*, 22, 623. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-12854-1

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**How to cite this article:** Pilet, L., Reibel, C., Gautheron, N., Edel-Hermann, V., Giuliano, S., Herbach, M. et al. (2024) First report of *Fusarium oxysporum* causing damping-off on *Datura stramonium* in France. *New Disease Reports*, 50, e12309. https://doi.org/10.1002/ndr2.12309