Pestalotia: CROWN ROT DISEASE OF STRAWBERRY 1ST REPORT IN IRAQ
HUDA HAZIM WAFI AL- TAAE *
Department of Plant Protection, College of Agriculture and Forestry, University of Mosul, Mosul, Iraq
ALI KAREEM AL- TAAE
Department of Plant Protection, College of Agriculture and Forestry, University of Mosul, Mosul, Iraq
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Strawberry (Fragaria ananassa Duch.) considered as mostly locally important consummated fruit crop in Iraq. Infected plants collected from strawberry farm of Horticulture Department, Agriculture & Forestry College, University of Mosul, Ninevah governorate, North Iraq, during the spring 2018. From tissues being infected, fungus being isolated and identified initially according to its morphological features utilizing hyphal and conidial structures. According to cultural and morphological features, the Pestalotia sp. was detected as strawberry pathogen. Fungus pathogenicity was confirmed also via postulates of Koch. This was confirmed by the molecular identification test, methodology confirmed it. Molecular fungal identification pathogen was performed via implementing transcribed internal spacer (ITS) conserved ribosomal region of DNA. All sequences as ITS proved homologous to isolates of Pestalotia rhododendri in database of Gen-Bank at similarity % of 100. At Gen-Bank, Iraqi isolate was assigned No. MN128595.1 as Accession. Up to our best knowledge, this is P. rhododendri 1st molecular strawberry record in Iraq.
Keywords: Strawberry, Fragaria ananassa, Pestalotia rhododendri, crown rot.