Vol. 16 No. 1
Molecular identification of fungi associated with mulberry root rot disease in Eastern and North Eastern India
Author(s): A. PAPPACHAN, K. RAHUL, L. IREN AND V. SIVAPRASAD
Abstract: Root rot of mulberry is a devastating disease which completely kills the whole plants and renders plantation unfit for mulberry cultivation. Five fungal cultures were isolated on PDA from root samples infected with root rot disease from Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and West Bengal. Pathogenicity of isolates was confirmed by modified root inoculation method. Four isolates were characterized by white and cottony colonies, turned into bluish brown producing hyaline, thick walled, slightly curved short and bent falcate macroconidia and oval/cylindrical, hyaline, smooth microconidia belonging to Fusarium spp. All the isolates produced abundant terminal or intercalary, smooth, globose to subglobose chlamydospores. A fungal isolate with chocolate brown colony producing medianly septate, dark brown, thick walled ellipsoidal conidia with truncate base and longitudinal striations was identified as Lasiodiplodia sp. Total genomic DNA was isolated from the fungal isolates and ITS regions were amplified using universal primers ITS1 and ITS4. BLAST analysis revealed that isolates from Karjora and Pipulkhola (West Bengal), shared maximum nucleotide identity (98.7% and 99.8%) with Fusarium solani F5 (MG711899) and F. solani Fs2 (KC156594), respectively. Similarly, the isolate from Sille (Arunachal Pradesh) and Jorhat (Assam) exhibited maximum nucleotide similarity (98.09% and 98.67%) with F. solani OSHSL-5.4 (KR017036) and F. solani AV1 (MH517359), respectively. Isolate from Kolasib (Mizoram) was 99.03% homologous to Lasiodiplodia theobromae Bl16 (MK813947).
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