TY - JOUR ID - 171014 TI - Molecular Detection of Fusarium species infected Corn in Kurdistan region-Iraq JO - Passer Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences JA - PSR LA - en SN - 27065944 AU - Kakakhan, Halmat Salahaden AU - Shekhany, Khattab Ahmed Mustafa AD - Department of Medical Laboratory Science, College of medical & applied science, Charmo University-l, Chamchamal, Kurdistan Region-Iraq AD - Biology Department, College of Science, University of Sulaimani, Sulaimani Y1 - 2023 PY - 2023 VL - 5 IS - 2 SP - 224 EP - 230 KW - Corn ear and kernel rot KW - Fusarium species KW - ITS KW - Molecular identification KW - and Phylogenetic Analysis DO - 10.24271/psr.2023.375971.1190 N2 - Corn or Maize product is regarded as one of the essential products in the world and stands third product after the rice and wheat crops. Different fungal pathogens attack corn plants; one of them is ear rot, brought on by Fusarium species and whose occurrence is primarily influenced by environmental factors. In order to isolate and identify Fusarium species from corn plants and their prevalence, 50 samples of corn were collected during September, October, and November of 2021 from 30 corn fields in 14 regions of different places in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. From all samples, 39 isolates of Fusarium were detected and based on morphological characteristics, six other species of Fusarium were identified, namely F. verticillioides (33.34%), F. proliferatum (25.64%), F. oxysporum (12.82%), F. incarnatum and F. equiseti (10.25% each), then F. fujikuroi (7.7%). The most prevalent species was F. verticillioides which was isolated from seven corn fields and significantly higher than all other isolated species. All Fusarium isolates were also molecularly identified depending on amplifying the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) universal region using forward ITS1 and reverse ITS4 primers and indicated DNA fragments ranged from 550 to 570 bp. The PCR fragments of the amplified ITS region were sequenced, aligned and registered in NCBI GeneBank with specified accession numbers. The phylogenetic tree and all analyzes were performed using the MEGA program version 11.0.13. The current study concluded that the corn fields in the Kurdistan region are infected with different Fusarium species, and the most common species is F. verticillioides. As well as the Fusarium species in the Kurdistan region have close evolutionary history to the same species in other countries. Thus, the study recommends more research to investigate the occurrence of toxigenic Fusarium species associated with cereal grains in the region. UR - https://passer.garmian.edu.krd/article_171014.html L1 - https://passer.garmian.edu.krd/article_171014_49c477a958a0882f37eb34e6062720b3.pdf ER -