Investigation on Fusarium ear rot of corn in Khuzestan Province

To investigate the Fusarium ear rot of corn in Khuzestan Province, the samples, form the early stage of ear formation till the time of harvesting from different fields in various regions of the province, were collected. 164 isolates of Fusarium were categorized into seven species after separation and purification. The most frequent isolates among Fusarium species under investigation were F. verticillioides, F. proliferatum, and F. semitectum with 74, 46, and 24 isolates, respectively while F. sporotrichioides, F. crookwellense, F. subglutinans and F. anthophilum were among the least frequent with, 4, 4 and 4 isolates, respectively. This is the first time that a report of the occurrence of F. crookwellense from diseased ear of corn in Iran is published. Pathogenicity tests were performed using “Nail punch” method on intact ears, and the spore suspension used contained 106 spore/ml. The results obtained from these pathogenic tests depicted that all isolates were pathogenic to the maize plants. It was proved that F. verticillioides caused more disease on the maize while F. sporotrichioides caused the least amount of damage to the maize.