Morphological and cultural characterization of two Fusarium isolates causing wheat fusarium head blight in Algeria

Abstract

In Algeria, fusarium head blight is a serious fungal disease of wheat caused by Fusarium genus. The study of the epidemiological cycle of the disease in the field is always hampered by a major problem which is the identification of the parasitic complex of Fusarium species. These species can only be identified after Petri dish culture and observation of a set of morphological criteria such as color, cultural aspect of colonies, growth rate of mycelium and the form of isolate macroconidia. To this end, the objective of this present study is to identify two Fusarium isolates based on a set of morphological and cultural criteria mentioned above. The results obtained for all the morphological characters studied show phenotypic variability between the two isolates. Based on these results, we were able to characterize these two isolates as F. graminearum and F. culmorum. Indeed, morphological and cultural characterization, although important, remains insufficient. It should therefore be further investigated by molecular characterization, in order to highlight any differences between the two isolates studied.