Occurrence of Fusarium species associated with economically important agricultural crops in Iran

Abstract

Plant diseases caused by Fusarium spp. will results in yield losses and are becoming more significant  in Iran. In this study, infected plant samples suspected to Fusarium infection, plant debris and  rhizosphere soil were collected from the most important crops that is, wheat, rice, corn, barley, potato,  cucurbits from different provinces in Iran during 2002 to 2009. A total of 2,500 Fusarium isolates were  obtained and classified into 30 species based on morphological characters. Fusarium sporotrichioides,  F. chlamydosporum, F. graminearum and F. pseudograminearum were obtained only from tissue  samples whereas F. scirpi, F. longipes and F. eumartii were from soils. Among the isolates, 41% were  recovered from plant tissue, 36% from soil and 23% from plant debris samples. In cereals tissues, F.  graminearum, F. pseudograminearum, F. sambucinum, F. culmorum, F. crookwellense, Fusarium  proliferatum, F. verticillioides, F. fujikuroi and F. nygamai were predominant species. Fusarium spp.  recovered from potato tissues were F. sambucinum, F. culmorum, F. crookwellense, F. trichothecioides,  F. proliferatum, F. verticillioides, F. subglutinans and F. anthophilum whereas F. solani and F.  oxysporum were predominant in cucurbits, sorghum, tomato, sugar beet and bean. To our knowledge  this is the first comprehensive report on the identification of large number of Fusarium spp. in different  crops from Iran.    Key words: Fusarium spp., occurrence, distribution, agricultural crops, Iran.