Screening for Susceptibility of Macadamia to and its Fungal Symbiont .

The polyphagous shothole borer (, PSHB), an ambrosia beetle, with its fungal symbiont, , is responsible for Fusarium dieback (FD) in a wide range of woody hosts. In 2019, the first suspected case of was reported in macadamia in South Africa. The aims of this study were to confirm the report and thereafter to assess the susceptibility of commercially planted macadamia cultivars to FD caused by The identities of the beetle and associated fungal symbionts were confirmed by means of DNA sequence analysis of the 28S ribosomal large subunit gene for beetles and the internal transcribed spacer region for fungi.