Lecanosticta acicola : a growing threat to expanding global pine forests and plantations

Lecanosticta acicola causes brown spot needle blight (BSNB) of Pinus species. The pathogen occurs mostly in the Northern Hemisphere but has also been reported in Central America and Colombia. BSNB can lead to stunted growth and tree mortal-ity, and has resulted in severe damage to pine plantations in the past. There have been increasingly frequent new reports of this pathogen in Europe and in North America during the course of the past 10 years. This is despite the fact that quarantine prac-tices and eradication protocols are in place to prevent its spread. TAXONOMY: Kingdom Fungi; Phylum Ascomycota; Subphylum Pezizomy cotina; Class Dothideomycetes; Subclass Dothideomy-cetidae; Order Capniodales; Family Mycosphaerellaceae; Genus Lecanosticta. HOST RANGE AND DISTRIBUTION: Lecanosticta spp. occur on various Pinus species and are found in North America, Central America, South America (Colombia), Europe as well as Asia. DISEASE SYMPTOMS: Small yellow irregular spots appear on the infected pine needles that become brown over time. They can be surrounded by a yellow halo. These characteristic brown spots develop to form narrow brown bands that result in needle death from the tips down to the point of infection. Needles are prema-turely shed, leaving bare branches with tufts of new needles at the branch tips. Infection is usually most severe in the lower parts of the trees and progresses upwards into the canopies. USEFUL WEBSITES: The EPPO global database providing informa-tion on L. acicola (https ://gd.eppo.int/taxon/ SCIRAC)Reference genome of L. acicola available on GenBank (https ://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genom e/?term=Lecan ostic ta+acicola)JGI Gold Genome database information sheet of L. acicola sequenced genome (https ://gold.jgi.doe.gov/organ ism?xml:id=Go004 7147).The National Research Foundation of South Africa as well as members of the Tree Protection Cooperative Program.https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/13643703pm2020BiochemistryForestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI)GeneticsMicrobiology and Plant Patholog