A new High-Resolution Melting assay for genotyping Alternaria species causing citrus brown spot

Alternaria brown spot is one of the most important diseases of tangerines and their hybrids worldwide. To set up effective control strategy, the accurate detection and identification of the species responsible of the diseases is crucial. However, the characterization based on morphology and/or multilocus genetic approaches is time consuming, requires great expertise, and sometimes is not conclusive. Therefore, the setup of a rapid and efficient DNA-based assay might be of paramount importance. The High-Resolution Melting (HRM) analysis represents an interesting tool for the uncovering of nucleotide variations as small as one base difference, and as such, relevant to species characterization.