Study of Fungal Populations in Winter Type Canola Seeds

The contamination of canola seeds to various fungal agents is important like other crops and it is varied annually. Diseases like blackleg and sclerotinia stem rot are considered as the most important diseases in Iran. The possibility of their direct spread through seed contaminations and indirect spread through infected debris in seed masses will have danger of their development. For investigating canola seed contamination to fungal agents, seed samples were collected from seed parties of canola grown in cold areas including Alborz, Kermanshah and Markazi provinces. The surface of seeds were observed to differentiate and separate different abnormal appearances including wrinkle, presence of cracks, oozes, hyphal shape particles, and black spots. The presence of sclerotia of stem rots disease causal agent, and plant debris containing pycnidia of blackleg disease were checked in seed samples using stereo microscope. The identification of fungi on the seeds was done with and without surface disinfection processes. The plant debris in non-sieved seed samples did not have structures similar to pycnidia of blackleg disease. The results obtained demonstrated that the seed samples were contaminated to fungi including  Penicillium sp.,  Alternaria sp.,  Aspergillus sp., and  Rhizopus sp..