Abstract

Three species of Mycosphaerella are known to cause Sigatoka leaf diseases in banana. M. musicola causes yellow Sigatoka, M. fijiensis causes black Sigatoka and M. eumusae causes eumusae leaf spot. Little is known about the presence of Sigatoka leaf diseases of banana in South Africa. Although yellow Sigatoka has previously been reported, the identity of the causal organism has never been confirmed. Extensive surveys of the five banana-growing areas in South Africa were conducted between 1999 and 2001, which resulted in the collection of various Sigatoka-like leaf spot samples. After morphological examination of the infected material, monoconidial isolates of the causal organism were established from each sample. A molecular confirmation of identity was conducted using species-specific primers for M. musicola and M. fijiensis. Sequence data of the ITS region was further obtained to compare the South African Mycosphaerella isolates from banana with M. musicola, M. fijiensis and M. eumusae. These results confirm that only M. musicola is presently associated with yellow Sigatoka symptoms in South Africa.