Black mould of post-harvest tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) caused by Cladosporium cladosporioides in Australia

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) is an important global vegetable crop for both the fresh and processed vegetable industries. Tomatoes from a cold storage refrigerator (4 °C) in Melbourne, Australia exhibiting symptoms of black to dark-olive, sunken lesions were found to be infected by Cladosporium cladosporioides based on morphological and molecular identification. Pathogenicity tests confirmed that C. cladosporioides was the cause of the black mould on tomato fruits. This is the first report of C. cladosporioides causing black mould on harvested tomato fruits in Australia.