Morphological, molecular and pathogenic characterization of Fusarium spp. associated with chickpea wilt in western Iran

Abstract

Fusarium wilt is one of the most severe diseases of chickpea in the major growing areas of chickpea production in western Iran. To identify Fusarium spp. associated with chickpea plants showing symptoms of yellowing and wilting, 58 chickpea fields were sampled and 106 Fusarium spp. isolates were obtained from six different regions of Kermanshah Prov- ince in western Iran during 2018 and 2019 crop seasons. Thirty-six isolates obtained from stem or lower stem tissues were selected for pathogenicity, morphological and molecular identification using polymease chain reaction species-specific primers. Eleven isolates of Fusarium spp. were selected for sequence analyzing the translation elongation factor 1-α (EF-1α), and β-tubulin gene regions. Phylogenetic analysis of concatenated DNA sequences of both gene regions of these isolates plus other taxa revealed that 11 Fusarium spp. isolates were clustered into five distinct groups. Based on the results of morphological and mo- lecular identification five Fusarium species were identified. Pathogenicity tests showed that F. oxysporum f. sp. ciceris and F. redolens isolates had the highest disease incidence on JG–62 and Bivenij cvs. and F. hostae, F. equiseti and F. acuminatum isolates had the lowest disease incidence. No sign of vascular discoloration was observed in longitudinal or transverse sections of chickpea plants affected by F. redolens isolates. Instead, brown to black necrosis was observed on the surface of tap-roots and crowns. No correlation was found between geographical distribution and pathogenicity of isolates. This is the first report of morpho- logical, molecular and pathogenicity characteristics of F. redolens and F. hostae isolated from chickpea stems or lower stems in Iran.

Keywords

• cicer arietinum
• chickpea wilt
• fusarium redolens
• fusarium hostae