Cytospora friesii and Sydowia polyspora are associated with the sudden dieback of Abies concolor in Southern Europe

Abies concolor was introduced to Europe in the 19th century and commonly planted as an ornamental tree. In 2018, after several very warm dry vegetation seasons, which has likely caused abiotic stress trees, a sudden dieback of A. observed city Aranđelovac Serbia. The external symptoms were rapid discoloration needles larger part crown eventually trees. aim this study identify possible agents damage by analysing fungal communities associated with symptomatic using high-throughput sequencing no seen on branches or stems. Symptomatic collected from lower five standing Half surface sterilised remaining left unsterilised. DNA extracted, amplified ITS2 rDNA marker sequenced. Quality filtering showed presence 6 191 high quality reads, which, following clustering analysis, found represent 79 non-singletons taxa. most common fungi both unsterilised pathogens Cytospora friesii (59.7%) Sydowia polyspora (20.6%). results demonstrated that C. S. can cause decline trees subjected stress.