نخستین گزارش پوسیدگی ریشه عدس ناشی از Fusarium falciforme در غرب ایران

As a food legume, lentil is a crop with high nutritional value, whose cultivation helps to maintain soil fertility, especially in arid and semi-arid regions such as Iran, where it is cultivated as a crop rotation with cereals. Wilt and root rot of lentils is a devastating disease commonly occurring during all growing seasons in Iran and inflicts significant yield losses on farmers. In previous studies, Fusarium oxysporum and F. solani have been reported as the leading causes of the disease in Iran. However, in most previous studies, identification of the pathogen was based exclusively on morphological characteristics. In this study, 29 lentil fields located in western Iran were surveyed. Four to five diseased plants showing yellowing or plant death symptoms were collected from each field. The obtained Fusarium isolates belonged to F. oxysporum Complex (FOSC), F. solani Complex (FSSC), F. equiseti, F. avenaceum and F. graminearum. Among them, FSSC and FOSC were identified as the predominant species. Out of 99 Fusarium isolates obtained from symptomatic plants, the relative prevalence of FOSC (74%) was more than FSSC (14%). The pathogenicity of 14 obtained isolates belonging to FSSC was investigated and among the pathogenic isolates, five isolates were selected and molecularly characterized using the nrITS-rDNA and TEF-1α gene sequencing. Phylogenetic analyses deduced from TEF-1α and nrITS-rDNA sequences determined the position of the selected isolates. Based on the resulting phylogenetic tree, two isolates were grouped into phylogenetic species of F. falciforme, and the other three isolates were grouped into phylogenetic species of F. solani sensu stricto. To our knowledge, F. falciforme have not been reported on lentils and this is the First report of pathogenicity of F. falciforme on lentils.