Non-host specificity of Botryosphaeriaceae on macadamia and blueberry

The ability of species in the Botryosphaeriaceae to inhabit seemingly healthy plants, reside as endophytes yet result in serious disease under stressful environmental conditions is poorly understood, as is their ability to colonise many unrelated hosts often without causing disease. Although many species of Botryosphaeriaceae have a wide host range, there is dearth of information on pathogenic variation of isolates of the same species on different hosts. In this study we used 16 isolates belonging to two genera of Botryosphaeriaceae from seven host plant species, to test the hypothesis that there are significant differences in pathogenic variation, varietal preferences and cross-pathogenicity in Botryosphaeriaceae on two unrelated host crops (macadamia and blueberry). Using the detached leaf and stem inoculation assays, we observed significantly (