First Report of Alternaria arborescens Causing Early Blight on Tomato in Iraq

Abstract

In this paper, the isolation of the fungal species Alternaria arborescens was done from symptomatic tomato leaves and diagnosed morphologically and molecularly using ITS primers. Subsequently, pathogenicity determination was achieved for the diagnosed fungal species on tomato plant. It’s noteworthy, this work on A. arborescens was not previously recorded as a potential pathogen on the shoot system of tomato in Iraq.

Keywords

• Alternaria arborescens
• Lycopersicon esculentum Mill
• morphology
• pathogenicity
• phylogenetic analysis