قارچ‌های همراه با سرخشکیدگی درختان کاج تهران (Pinus eldarica Medw.) در استان کرمان

Tehran pine (Pinus eldarica Medw.) is one of the most important ornamental tree species in urban green spaces. A sever dieback of Tehran pine trees has recently been observed in some green spaces of Kerman county. Therefore, the current study was carried out in order to isolate and identify the fungal species associated with pine trees showing disease symptoms. Woody samples were collected from the branches of trees with dieback symptoms at different landscape areas during 2022-2023. Wood segments were cut from the affected branches and fungal isolations were made from various internal wood symptoms. Small wood pieces (3-5 mm) were cut from the margin between healthy and discoloured wood tissues, surface-disinfected for 1-2 min in a 1.5 % sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) solution, and washed twice with sterile distilled water (SDW). All disinfected wood segments allowed to air dry and then were plated potato dextrose agar (PDA). Petri plates were incubated at 25 and checked for fungal growth colonies. Pure cultures were obtained by transferring hyphal tips or single spores onto fresh PDA plates. Preliminary identification of fungal isolates was performed based on cultural and morphological characteristics. DNA was extracted using a CTAB protocol and morphological identifications of the representative isolates were confirmed by sequence analysis of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) nrDNA and a partial β-tubulin (tub2) and the translation elongation factor 1α (tef-1α) gens using ITS1/ITS4, T1/Bt2b, and EF1-728F/EF1-986R primer sets, respectively. Based on morphological and molecular data analyses, Lasiodiplodia theobromae, Epicoccum layuense, Pestalotiopsis parva, Inocutis levis, Phaeoacremonium alvesii, Phaeoacremonium rubrigenum and a Diatrypaceae sp. were recovered and identified from Tehran pine trees showing dieback symptoms in Kerman county. Based to our knowledge, most of the fungal species identified in this research (with the exception of P. alvesii), are reported for the first time on P. eldarica worldwide.