Association of with die-back and decline of nutmeg as revealed through phenotypic, pathogenicity and phylogenetic analyses.

is a cosmopolitan pathogen geographically widespread in tropics and subtropics inciting economically important diseases on diverse plant genera. In the present study, associated with nutmeg exhibiting die-back and declining symptoms was identified and characterized by adopting a polyphasic approach. The disease was characterized with the symptoms including general decline, water-soaking patches on branches and tree trunk, die-back of branches, necrotic lesions beneath water-soaked lesions and necrosis of vascular tissues. The isolates representing diverse nutmeg growing tracts were initially identified as species based on macro- and micro-morphological characteristics. Subsequent analyses of internal transcribed spacer (ITS), partial elongation factor 1-alpha () and () genes identified the pathogen as . Pathogenicity studies were proved on nutmeg twigs and branches (in vitro) as well as on saplings (in vivo). The present investigation enunciated the association of with die-back and decline of nutmeg employing a polyphasic approach which warrants further investigations on its spatio-temporal distribution, pathogen diversity, weather-host-pathogen interaction and formulating prospective disease management strategies.