قارچ های اندوفیت گلرنگ در ایران

Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) is an annual plant belongs to the Asteraceae family. Safflower is one of the industrial plants that is cultivated for seed oil and eatable color. The aim of this research was to investigate on endophytic fungi of safflower in Iran. Sampling was done on Kose cultivar safflower from fields in Isfahan province (Khorzouk city). The fungal species was isolated from safflower healthy leaves without symptoms of disease. The clony of this fungus grew 78 mm on the PDA culture medium in temperature alternating conditions of 25 degrees Celsius (day) and 20 degrees Celsius (night) and light alternating conditions of 12 hours of darkness and 12 hours of light in one week. Colony of this fangus have a white aerial mycelium, which was observed from the lower surface of the petri as light yellow color with a brown center. The isolate produces cream-colored sporodochia on CLA culture medium under NUV light. On CLA, it produces falciform hyaline macroconidia with a size of 4.5-6.4 × 29-36.4 micrometers with three to five septate. It forms spherical and oval chlamydospores singly, in pairs or in chains, microconidia are ovoid or kidney-shaped with one or two cells with a size of 3.5-4.8 × 10.2-14.9 micrometers and are produced in false heads. Simple and long conidiophores with a length of 59.5-69.7 micrometers were observed. The fungal species was identified as Fusarium falciforme and is separated from other species of Fusarium by having unique morphological characteristics such as long monophialid and slime ball. In order to confirm morphological identification, after DNA extraction, ITS and TEF regions were amplified and sequenced. Based on the results obtained from the morphological characteristics and analysis of the TEF and ITS regions of the obtained fungal isolate, F. falciforme was identified. To carry out pathogenicity test, a suspension with a concentration of 10⁶ spores per milliliter was prepared from the seven-day-old culture grown on the PDA and inoculated into the 50-day-old safflower plant of Kose variety. The fungal species was re-isolated from the symptomless leaf and Koch's pustulate was proved. According to the available information, this is the first report of the endophytic fungus F. falciforme in safflower in the world.