TITLE:
Determination of Fusarium Species Associated with Onion Plants (Allium cepa) in Field in Burkina Faso Causing Damping-Off and Bulb Rots
AUTHORS:
Konwende Raïssa Kintega, P. Elisabeth Zida, Romain Soalla, Vianney W. Tarpaga, Philippe Sankara, Paco Sereme
KEYWORDS:
Fungal Pathogen, Violet de Galmi, Fusarium, Seedling Damping-Off, Bulb Rots
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Plant Sciences,
Vol.11 No.1,
January
17,
2020
ABSTRACT: Onion (Allium cepa L.) is the
second most important vegetable crop in Burkina Faso and provides an important
source of income for those involved in the sector. However, producers are
facing significant pre-harvest and post-harvest losses. To date, knowledge of
major diseases of the crop is limited, limiting the development of effective control
strategies. The objective of this study was to test the pathogenicity of some species
of Fusarium. To this end, 33 fungal
isolates collected from onion plants in 17 localities and belonging to five Fusarium species were used to inoculate
onion seeds and bulbs to determine the pathogenic species responsible for
damping-off on seedlings and basal bulb rot in Burkina Faso. The virulence of
pathogenic isolates was determined according to the percentages of seedling
damping-off evaluated 28 Days After Sowing, and the extent of rot in millimetres
on inoculated bulbs. The evaluation of isolates on seedlings revealed that the
most pathogenic isolates belong to the species F. proliferatum (I29, I21,
I37, I33, I31), F. thapsinum (I35) and F. solani (I38) which
resulted in 58.33% - 70.83% of seedling damping-off. The most pathogenic
isolates on bulbs belong to the species F. proliferatum (I4, I29, I32) and F. oxysporum (I52, I50, I16) which caused 21.67 to 25 mm of rot on bulbs. Isolate I29 was
very virulent on both seedlings and bulbs. The isolates of F. fujikuroi species were
all low pathogenic on seedlings but one of them, (I27), expressed average
pathogenicity on bulbs.