Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
1
MSc Student, Department of Plant Protection, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Tabriz.
2
Associate Professor Department of Plant Protection, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Tabriz
3
Professor, Department of Plant Protection, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Tabriz,
Abstract
Trunk diseases are considered as a potential threat for the cultivation and production of stone fruit trees all over the world. Various biotic agents are involved in trunk diseases, of those fungal gropus are the most common ones playing prominent role in these diseases. Given the incidence of the trunk diseases on stone fruit trees in the orchards of East and West Azerbaijan provinces, the identity of fungal species associated with disease symptoms mainly remain unknown. In the present study the fungal species associated with the trunk diseases symptoms on stone fruit trees in this region were characterized using morphological and molecular data. A total number of 101 fungal isolates were isolated from 128 diseased samples. Our results revealed that Cytospora chrysosperma with the isolation freqeuncey on 23.76 % represented the most dominant species followed by Alternaria alternata (13.86 %), Paecilomyces variotti (9.9 %) and Fusarium proliferatum (8.91 %). The identity of Alternaria isolates was confirmed using seqeunce data of rpb2 gene. The other fungal species which were isolated with lower frequencies included Epicoccum nigrum, Cladosporium cladosporioides, Phoma glomerata, Paraconiothyrium africanum, Sarocladium strictum, Chaetomium globosum, F. acuminatum, F. tricinctum. C. cincta, C. pruinosa, Botryosphaeria sarmentorum and Phaeoacremonium aleophilum. Among the fungal species isolated in this study Cytospora chrysosperma, C. cincta, C. pruinosa B. sarmentorum, P. aleophilum and P. africanum have been reported as the causal agents of trunk diseases on stone fruit trees. With the identification of fungal species associated with trunk diseases on stone fruit trees, it will be possible to practice suitable management strategies for these diseases.
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