Abstract
Fusarium is one of the most important genera of phytopathogenic fungi, causing potato wilt in the field and potato tuber dry rot during storage. The objectives of this study were to identify Fusarium species associated with both potato diseases in different growing regions in Algeria, and to assess their pathogenicity. Among the 152 isolates collected from symptomatic potato plants and tubers in different provinces in Algeria, 13 species of Fusarium and Neocosmospora were identified. Among these three species were isolated only from plants showing symptoms of Fusarium potato wilt (F. oxysporum, F. venenatum, Neocosmospora solani). Two species (F. culmorum, N. tonkinensis) and an isolate of Neocosmospora sp. were found exclusively in tubers with potato dry rot and the remaining ones (F. redolens, F. cf. tricinctum, F. sambucinum, F. cf. incarnatum-equiseti, F. nygamai, F. brachygibbosum and N. falciformis) were associated with both sample types. Fusarium sambucinum was the most frequent species (52.6% of isolates). Fusarium oxysporum and F. nygamai isolates were the most aggressive in the potato wilt pathogenicity test, and F. sambucinum isolates were the most aggressive in the potato tuber pathogenicity test. This is the first study identifying and characterizing potato dry rot and potato wilt pathogens in Algeria.
Highlights
Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is an important crop plant that has the potential to meet food demand of the fast growing human population
Further identification was performed by clustering the isolates based on results from molecular assays that covered: the ability to synthesize mycotoxins, internal transcribed spacer (ITS) restriction profiles and Fusarium species-specific primers (Online Resource 1 and 2)
Similar results were obtained for markers specific for F. avenaceum, F. culmorum and F. graminearum (J1A, Fc01 and Fg16, respectively), in case of these markers, testing for falsenegative signals was limited (Online Resource 1)
Summary
Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is an important crop plant that has the potential to meet food demand of the fast growing human population. In Algeria, the production of potato was over 4.6 million tons in 2018, with average yield of 31.0 tons / hectare (FAOSTAT 2020). Algeria is ranked among the largest consumer countries of potato, with an annual consumption of more than 111 kg / inhabitant, which in Africa is estimated on average at 4 kg / inhabitant / year. Potato is prone to many diseases that can ravage the crop before and after harvest. Fungal pathogens cause economic losses in the field, during storage, transport and commercialization (Eken et al 2000). Fusarium is one of the most important genera of phytopathogenic fungi, causing potato wilt in the field and potato tuber dry rot during storage
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