Investigation of Strawberry cultivars resistance against Botrytis cinerea and control effect of Anise essence and Iprodione-Carbendazim on it

The Botrytis cinerea is one of the most important agents of Strawberry fruit rot. In order to identify the pathogenicity potential of the isolates on fruits and the antifungal effect of Anise essence on this fungus, forty one isolates of B. cinerea was collected from different areas of Mazandaran province on strawberry showing symptoms of gray rot on fruits. Following the purification of the fungus, pathogenicity test was done on Comarosa, Parus and Gilasi varieties of strawberries. Morphological identification of isolates was done in regard to their vegetative characteristics. Molecular identification carried out using specific primer C729 and common primers ITS4 and ITS5. Inhibition rate of fungal growth was recorded by Anise oil and Iprodione- Carbendazim fungicide. The results based on morphological characteristics showed that all isolates belonge to Botrytis cinerea. Identification of isolates using specific primer C729 showed that all of them had band of 700 bp. Based on disease severity on three strawberry cultivars; isolates were graded into seven groups. The ITS region of ribosomal DNA of each group was amplified using ITS4 and ITS5 primers. After sequencing and alignment, the obtained sequences were compared with the existing sequences in Gene Bank. The results showed there is high genetic diversity among the isolates, so that and they classified into five groups with 80% similarity. The result of in vitro evaluation of fungicide and Anise essence effect, showed that with increasing of Anise oil concentration, antifungal activity is also increasing against B. cinerea. Iprodione- Carnbendazim fungicide could inhibit the growth of isolates on a culture medium.