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Epidemiology of Fusarium Diseases in Sugarcane: A New Discovery of Same Fusarium sacchari Causing Two Distinct Diseases, Wilt and Pokkah Boeng

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Abstract

Sugarcane, an important field crop, is cultivated under tropical and subtropical regions around the world. Fusarium sacchari causing wilt, is a stalk disease, inflicting severe damage to the crop in India and other countries. Similarly, pokkah boeng (PB) a foliar disease caused by different species of Fusarium also infects the crop throughout the world. In India, both the diseases occur in different states in various sugarcane varieties. Although both diseases occur independently in the field, we recorded that they occur together in a plant. Hence, a detailed investigation was conducted to characterize different Fusarium isolates from wilt- and PB-affected sugarcane varieties by sequencing TEF1-α gene. Gene sequencing of 48 isolates revealed that 44 were of F. sacchari and the remaining four belonged to F. proliferatum. Of the four F. proliferatum, three were associated with PB and one with wilt. Almost all the 41 wilt-associated isolates belonged to F. sacchari. Investigation carried out to identify Fusarium isolates from the plants exhibiting both the wilt and the PB in two varieties Co 0238 and MS 901 revealed that only F. sacchari caused wilt and PB symptoms in both. Further, several varieties showed progressive disease severity through different phases of PB and that resulted in wilt development. The results clearly established for the first time that the same fungal pathogen systematically infects sugarcane plant and exhibits both the diseases.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the Directors of the Institute for providing facilities and acknowledge Dr. R. Jothi, Shri K. Manivannan and Shri. R. Nithyanandan for their technical support in carrying out field and laboratory studies. The research work was partly supported by ICAR under Outreach project on PHYTOFURA.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Crop Protection, ICAR-Sugarcane Breeding Institute, Coimbatore, 641007, India

    R. Viswanathan, C. G. Balaji, R. Selvakumar, P. Malathi, A. Ramesh Sundar & C. Naveen Prasanth

  2. ICAR-Sugarcane Breeding Institute Regional Centre, Karnal, 132001, India

    M. L. Chhabra & B. Parameswari

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  1. R. Viswanathan
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  2. C. G. Balaji
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  3. R. Selvakumar
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  4. P. Malathi
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  5. A. Ramesh Sundar
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  6. C. Naveen Prasanth
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  7. M. L. Chhabra
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  8. B. Parameswari
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Correspondence to R. Viswanathan.

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This study was partly funded by Outreach project of ICAR, ALCOCERA.

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

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Viswanathan, R., Balaji, C.G., Selvakumar, R. et al. Epidemiology of Fusarium Diseases in Sugarcane: A New Discovery of Same Fusarium sacchari Causing Two Distinct Diseases, Wilt and Pokkah Boeng. Sugar Tech 19, 638–646 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12355-017-0552-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12355-017-0552-4

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