Cyclamen persicum is a flowering species, widely cultivated as an ornamental plant worldwide. In May 2021, symptoms of Fusarium wilt, including wilting of leaves, root rot, vascular discoloration, and plant death were observed in 30% of C. persicum plants grown in a 5 decares greenhouse in Bursa province, Turkey. Symptomatic tissues from 10 plants were surface-sterilized with 1% NaOCl solution for 3 minutes and placed onto potato dextrose agar (PDA). The colonies developed were pale white to pink, foccose with abundant aerial mycelia.
Conidiophores from the aerial mycelia often had single phialides. Macroconidia produced in sporodochia were hyaline, slightly curved, 3 to 5 septate, and 29.5-41.2 × 7.3-9.8 μm (n=30) with basal foot cells shaped to pointed and apical cells tapered and curved. Micronidia [7.4-14.8 × 3.9-5.8 μm (n=30)] formed on short monophialides in falseheads were aseptate, elliptical, or kidney-shaped. Chlamydospores were terminal or intercalary in position and 7-12 μm in size. These characteristics were consistent with the description of F. oxysporum by Leslie and Summerell (2006). Also, RPB2 and EF1-α genes of the reference isolate Foc4 were sequenced with primers RPB2for/RPB2rev and EF1/EF2 and deposited in GenBank.
BLAST analysis showed 99.9-100% similarity to those (RPB2: LN828096, EF1-α: FJ985420) of F. oxysporum in GenBank. Also, EF1-α sequence shared 99.82% homology with known F. oxysporum f. sp. cyclaminis isolate MIAE01686 (accession No. KU128940). The phylogenetic analysis results showed the close genetic relationship of Foc4 with other strains of F. oxysporum. Pathogenicity tests were performed on 5-6 leaf seedlings of C. persicum. Six seedlings were inoculated by dipping their wounded roots for 30 min in a spore suspension of 106 spore/ml. Control plants were inoculated with sterile distilled water. The plants were transplanted into pots and placed at 23±1°C in 12 h photoperiod. After 3 weeks, typical wilt symptoms were observed on inoculated plants, but no symptoms were observed on control plants. Fusarium oxysporum was re-isolated from the inoculated seedlings, thus fulflling Koch’s postulates.
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Gültekin, Mehmet & Polat, Zühtü & Palacıoğlu, Gülsüm & Bayraktar, Harun. (2021). First report of Fusarium wilt caused by Fusarium oxysporum on Cyclamen persicum in Turkey. Journal of Plant Pathology. 10.1007/s42161-021-01001-1.