First Report of Botryosphaeria dothidea Causing Sweet Osmanthus Leaf Dieback in China

Sweet osmanthus is one of the ten traditional famous flowers in China.The occurrence of the diseases caused by fungi other than Botryosphaeria spp.has been reported mainly from China on sweet osmanthus.A leaf dieback of sweet osmanthus caused by Botryosphaeria sp.was found for the first time in 2007 in Nanning City,Guangxi,China.The objectives of the present study were to isolate and characterize the causal organism of sweet osmanthus leaf dieback.The fungus was isolated from the lesions of affected sweet osmanthus leaves and its pathogenicity to sweet osmanthus was confirmed using a detached-leaf-inoculation method.The identification of the pathogen was carried out mainly based on the morphological characters and molecular analysis of internal transcribed spacer （ITS） sequences.The morphological characters of the pathogenic isolate GHX6 were agreed with that of Botryosphaeria dothidea.The ITS sequence of the isolate was amplified with primers ITS1 and ITS4,and submitted to GenBank （accession no.GQ368251）.Molecular analysis based on ITS sequence comparison between the isolate GHX6 and the other related fungi derived from GenBank supported that the causal agent of the sweet osmanthus leaf dieback belonged to Botryosphaeria dothidea.This is the first report of Botryosphaeria dothidea causing leaf dieback on sweet osmanthus in China.

Analysis of aroma-active compounds in three sweet osmanthus(Osmanthus fragrans) cultivars by GC-olfactometry and GC-MS

Objective：Aroma is the core factor in aromatherapy. Sensory evaluation of aromas differed among three sweet osmanthus （Osmanthus fragrans） cultivar groups. The purpose of this study was to investigate the aroma-active compounds responsible for these differences. Methods： Gas chromatography-olfactometry （GC-O） and GC-mass spectrometry （GC-MS） were used to analyze the aroma-active compounds and volatiles of creamy-white （‘Houban Yingui’, HBYG）, yellow （‘Liuye Jingui’, LYJG）, and orange （‘Gecheng Dangui’, GCDG） cultivars. Results：Seventeen aroma-active compounds were detected among 54 volatiles. trans-β-Ocimene, trans-β-ionone, and linalool, which were major volatiles, were identified as aroma-active, while cis-3-hexenyl butanoate,γ-terpinene, and hexyl butanoate were also aroma-active compounds, although their contents were low. Analysis of the odors was based on the sum of the modified frequency （MF） values of aroma-active compounds in different odor groups. HBYG contained more herb odors, contributed by cis-β-ocimene and trans-β-ocimene, while LYJG had more woody/violet/fruity odors released by trans-β-ionone, α-ionone, and hexyl butanoate. In GCDG, the more floral odors were the result of cis-linalool oxide, trans-linalool oxide, and linalool. Conclusions：Aroma-active compounds were not necessarily only the major volatiles：some volatiles with low content also contributed to aroma. The aroma differences among the three cultivars resulted from variation in the content of different odor groups and in the intensities of aroma-active compounds.