Objective To explore the potential hazard of W. carpophilus on other major tree species in Xinjiang, and to improve the diagnosis and detection efficiency of this disease,

Method in this paper, W. carpophilus was inoculated into healthy leaves of 19 plants in six families by ex vivo leaf inoculation, and its pathogenicity and host range were preliminarily determined; Specific primers for W. carpophilus were designed with reference to the tef1 sequence; 76 strains of W. carpophilus and 22 other fungi were specifically and sensitively detected by conventional PCR and real-time PCR, and the reaction system of real-time PCR was optimized; In addition, the designed specific primers were used to perform conventional PCR on natural onset samples in the field. Samples and wild apricot leaf samples 7, 10, 13, 16, 19, 21, 24 and 48 h after artificial inoculation were used for routine PCR detection.

Result The leaves of 15 plants inoculated showed obvious lesions after 5 d of inoculation, with extremely significant differences (P＜0.01) in lesion size between different hosts, with the largest lesion size of up to 28.99 mm² in Xinjiang leaflet white wax, and only four plants, namely, Prunus. cistena, Crataegus chlorocarpa, Populus alba var. pyrmidalis, Morus alba var. tatarica, were not involved. The specific primers W0404-14-F/ W0404-14-R designed in this study were able to amplify a specific band at 113 bp for W. carpophilus but not for other fungi. The sensitivity of the conventional PCR assay was 5.99 × 10⁻¹ ng·μL⁻¹. W. carpophilus could be detected within the leaves 10 h after inoculation of Wild Apricot Leaves by conventional PCR.

Conclusion W. carpophilus can harm 15 other tree species and is potentially harmful; PCR assay is rapid and specific for the detection of W. carpophilus. This study is the first time to explore the potential host range of W. carpophilus and a rapid PCR assay for the diagnosis and detection of porokeratosis caused by W. carpophilus.