Kota Kinabalu: Sabah’s industrial tree plantations are subject to various pests and diseases that attack the fast growing trees such as the Acacia species.
The fungus Ceratocystis spp. is one such pathogens that attack a wide range of economically important plants, causing cankers, lethal, wilt-type diseases, and black rot of storage roots on many plants, including the Acacia mangium that are grown in Sabah.
Ceratocystis wilt of Acacia mangium has devastated some plantations; the most serious threat since Acacia mangium was first introduced in Southeast Asia some 30 years ago with little understanding about Ceratocystis’ biology as a pathogen.