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PATHOGENICITY AND HOST RANGE OF FUSARIUM SOLANI (MART.) SACC. CAUSING DIEBACK OF SHISHAM (DALBERGIA SISSOO ROXB.)

N.A. RAJPUT^1*, M.A. PATHAN¹, M.M. JISKANI, A.Q. RAJPUT² AND R.R. ARAIN¹

Abstract: Pathogenicity test of predominantly isolated Fusarium solani from shisham dieback trees was conducted on shisham seedlings by inoculating either alone or in combination with less frequently isolated Rhizoctonia solani and Curvularia lunata. Internal browning of stem and roots were rated on 0-5 scale. Shisham plants inoculated with F. solani alone produced maximum disease incidence, showed prominent typical symptoms of the disease with internal browning of stem and roots.  However, R. solani and C. lunata either completly failed or caused very rare infection on test plants. F. solani produced moderate infection on shisham seedlings when inoculated with either R. solani or C. lunata. Maximum reduction in root and shoot length was observed in plants inoculated by injecting spore suspension of F. solani as compared to soil amended with spore suspension of the fungus or plants sprayed with spore suspension. Root and shoot weight was also decreased when spore suspension of the F. solani was injected into stem followed by soil amended with spore suspension and plants sprayed with spore suspension. Similar trends were also observed in reduction percentage in whole plant growth and weight of plants. Host range studies were coducted by inoculating seedlings of 10 different trees with F. solani indicated that the test fungus was moderate to highly pathogenic to shisham, Indian laburnum, siris and gold mohar.

¹Department of Plant Pathology, Sindh Agriculture University, Tandojam, Pakistan

²Department of Agriculture, University of Karachi, Karachi, Pakistan