VIEW ARTICLE

Etiology

Fungal Wilt and Root Rot Diseases of Chickpea in Southern Spain. A. Trapero- Casas, Assistant professor, Departamento de Patología Vegetal, Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Agrónomos, Universidad de Córdoba, Córdoba, Spain; R. M. Jiménez-Díaz, professor, Departamento de Patología Vegetal, Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Agrónomos, Universidad de Córdoba, Córdoba, Spain. Phytopathology 75:1146-1151. Accepted for publication 1 March 1985. This article is in the public domain and not copyrightable. It may be freely reprinted with customary crediting of the source. The American Phytopathological Society, 1985. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-75-1146.

Disease surveys in 1979- 1981 indicated that chickpeas in southern Spain were severely affected by a wilt and root rot complex. Symptoms included vascular wilt or yellowing, nonvascular yellowing, collar and root rots or cortical collar and root necrosis, and yellow stunt. Plants in all but one of 108 fields inspected had at least one of the symptoms. Vascular wilt and yellowing were the most prevalent. Fusarium oxysporum, F. solani, F. eumartii, and Macrophomina phaseolina were associated with the wilt and root rot complex. Salmon-pigmented isolates of F. oxysporum induced vascular wilt or yellowing, and reddish-pigmented isolates induced nonvascular yellowing and cortical collar and root necrosis. F. solani and F. eumartii induced nonvascular yellowing and black collar and root rot. M. phaseolina induced dry collar and root rot. Isolates of F. oxysporum that induced vascular wilt or yellowing were not pathogenic to alfalfa, bean, broadbean, lentil, lupine, pea, and soybean, but they could be reisolated from all inoculated legumes except soybean and yellow lupine. Isolates of F. solani and F. eumartii caused symptoms on all of the legumes except alfalfa and soybean. Those most severely affected were chickpea, broadbean, and pea. Isolates of F. oxysporum that induced vascular yellowing in a local chickpea cultivar were not pathogenic to cultivar JG-62, which was highly susceptible to the vascular wilt isolates.