1 First Report of Dieback of Quercus suber Trees Associated with Phytophthora quercina in Morocco F. J. Dorado, 1 T. Corcobado, 2 A. Brandano, 3 Y. Abbas, 4 F. Alcaide, 1 T. Jung, 2 B. Scanu, 3 and A. Solla 1,† 1 Faculty of Forestry, Institute for Dehesa Research (INDEHESA), Universidad de Extremadura, Avenida Virgen del Puerto 2, 10600 Plasencia, Cáceres, Spain 2 Phytophthora Research Centre, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology, Mendel University in Brno, 61300 Brno, Czech Republic 3 Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Sassari, Viale Italia 39A, 07100 Sassari, Italy 4 Polydisciplinary Faculty of Beni Mellal, University of Sultan Moulay Slimane, Mghila BP 523, Beni-Mellal 23000, Morocco Funding: The work was supported by Lithium Iberia S.L., the Government of Extremadura (Junta de Extremadura, VI-Plan Regional I+D+I, IB18091), University of Sassari (fondo di Ateneo per la ricerca 2019), the Czech Ministry for Education, Youth and Sports (Phytophthora Research Centre project, CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/15_003/0000453), and the European Regional Development Fund. F. J. Dorado was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Education (FPU16/03188). Cork oak (Quercus suber L.) is an evergreen tree native to SW Europe and NW Africa. It covers 2·10 6 ha in the western Mediterranean basin, forms heterogeneous forest ecosystems and represents an important source of income derived from cork production. While in Iberia, Italy, Tunisia and Algeria, drought and several endemic pathogens have been associated with cork oak decline (Moricca et al. 2016; Smahi et al. 2017), in Morocco there is no evidence, apart from overgrazing and human intervention (Fennane and Rejdali 2015), of a pathogen associated with oak decline. In December 2019, extensive dieback and mortality of 60-year-old cork oak trees were observed in a natural stand of ca 150 ha located 5 km east from Touazithe, in Maâmora forest, Morocco (34°13′38′′N, 6°14′51′′W - 87 m a.s.l.). Two years before, Q. suber seedlings from a local nursery were planted to increase tree density. Symptoms in trees and planted seedlings included chlorosis, reddish-brown discoloration of the whole crown and dieback starting in the upper crown. Root rot and lack of fine roots were observed. Tree mortality was estimated at ca 30%, and disease incidences of trees and seedlings were 45 and 70%, respectively. A Phytophthora species was consistently isolated from the rhizosphere of 3 symptomatic trees randomly selected at the site using leaves as bait (Jung et al. 1996). On carrot agar Phytophthora colonies were uniform and cottonwool-like. Sporangia were typically terminal, with ovoid, and obpyriform shape, mostly papillate, measuring 30.7 ± 4.7 µm length and 22.7 ± 4.1 µm wide. Oogonia were produced in single culture, and they were globose to subglobose, elongated to ellipsoid, 32.1 ± 2.9 µm in diameter and 46.1 ± 4.8 µm in length. Oospores were usually spherical, thick-walled, and measured 28.1 ± 2.4 µm. Antheridia were paragynous, mostly spherical, measuring 12.2 ± 1.4 µm. Isolates had minimum and maximum temperatures of 5 °C and 30 °C, respectively, and a growth optimum at 20 °C. Apart from the small size of sporangia, features were typical of Phytophthora quercina Jung. The identity of a representative strain (TJ1500) was corroborated by sequencing the ITS and mitochondrial cox1 gene regions, and BLAST search in GenBank showed 100% homology with sequences of the ex-type culture of P. quercina (KF358229 and KF358241 accessions, respectively). Both sequences of the representative isolate were submitted to GenBank (accessions OP086243 and OP290549). The strain TJ1500 is currently stored within the culture collections of the Mendel University in Brno and the University of Sassari. Its pathogenicity was verified and compared with a P. cinnamomi strain in a soil infestation test with one-year-old cork oak seedlings Page 1 of 4