Friday, March 29, 2024

Myrtle rust in mānuka concerns researchers

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The invasive myrtle rust disease that has threatened to lay waste to populations of native pohutukawa and ramarama has now been found in the seeds of mānuka around Auckland, raising fears the valuable native could be at risk from the disease’s impact.
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Dr Rob Beresford, co-leader of a study run through Nga Rakau Taketake, Saving our Iconic Trees programme, is studying myrtle rust spread.

He says the discovery in manuka is a new one, and the impact of the seed infection on the plant or the production of flowers and pollen was not known yet and requires more research to fully understand it.

Infected manuka seed capsules were first seen in January and February, but infection was gone by mid-March. Researchers believe the infection may have established in late spring when the mānuka plants were flowering.

Researchers believe it is likely infection will be found elsewhere outside of Auckland, with myrtle rust existing as far south as Greymouth. The research is only at its first stage of findings and cannot determine how susceptible different mānuka species are to the infection.

Beresford says further work was under way to understand how different environmental conditions contribute to myrtle rust’s spread.

“The more we know, the better we can prepare for myrtle rust. As yet, we don’t know the impact of seed infection on the plant or the production of flowers and pollen, so more research is needed to understand how this finding will impact mānuka,” Beresford said.

Myrtle rust was first discovered in New Zealand in 2017 in a Kerikeri nursery, quickly followed by several Taranaki sites on both commercial and private properties.

In the early days of discovery, a single infection was found on a mānuka seedling plant in a nursery, but none had been found at that stage in the wild.

The disease was first detected in Australia in 2010 and established quickly along the eastern seaboard, having already established around the world in the last 40 years in countries including South Africa, China, Hawaii and New Caledonia.

In late 2018, Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research was awarded $13 million from the Ministry for Business Innovation and Employment’s (MBIE) endeavour fund for a five- year research programme into the disease.

The disease’s genome was completed in March last year and research has also found fungicide types that are most effective against the rust when present on pohutukawa.

The impact of myrtle rust on Australian mānuka honey production has not proven to be significant to date.

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