Abstract
A selective agar medium based on macerated date fruits was developed for the isolation, enumeration and morphological identification of Fusarium proliferatum from soil and from infected tissues of various plants (including: onion bulbs, corn ears and stems, and various weed tissues). The selective date medium enhances the formation of polyphialide and longer chains of conidia for better separation from other related Fusarium species which also grow and proliferate on this medium. Furthermore, the date medium enables microscopic distinction among other closely related Fusarium species, e.g. F. oxysporum and F. verticillioides. Fruits of the date cultivars Medjoul and Deglet Noor provided the most useful results as compared with other cultivars tested. The date medium can serve as a selective medium for direct isolation and enumeration of F. proliferatum, as it suppresses the development of other soil fungi and plant pathogens such as Macrophomina phaseolina, Sclerotium rolfsii and Rhizoctonia solani, as well as bacteria.
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Acknowledgments
The authors wish to thank Ori Mishly and the field crew of Kibbutz Yotvata for their valuable support. The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement no. 261752. Contribution no. 749/13 from the Agricultural Research Organization, Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Bet Dagan, Israel.
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Isack, Y., Benichis, M., Gillet, D. et al. A selective agar medium for isolation, enumeration and morphological identification of Fusarium proliferatum . Phytoparasitica 42, 541–547 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12600-014-0392-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12600-014-0392-7