Morphological and Molecular Identification of Penicillium digitatum Causing Green Mould of Citrus Fruits in Egypt

Desouki, Abdalrahman; Ahmed Reda, Labiba; Rashed, Mohamed Abdel-Salam; Shehata, Shehata Taha

doi:10.21608/ajs.2023.211771.1520

	Morphological and Molecular Identification of Penicillium digitatum Causing Green Mould of Citrus Fruits in Egypt
Arab Universities Journal of Agricultural Sciences
Volume 31, Issue 2, December 2023, Page 281-293 PDF (1007.67 K)
Document Type: Original Article
DOI: 10.21608/ajs.2023.211771.1520
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Authors
Abdalrahman Desouki ¹; Labiba Ahmed Reda ²; Mohamed Abdel-Salam Rashed ³; Shehata Taha Shehata²
¹Department of Plant Pathology, Faculty of Agriculture, Ain Shams University, 68 Hadayek Shoubra, Postal code, Cairo, 11241, Egypt.
²Department of Plant Pathology, Faculty of Agriculture, Ain Shams University, P.O. Box 68 Hadayek Shoubra, 11241, Cairo, Egypt.
³Department of Genetics, Faculty of Agriculture, Ain Shams University, P.O. Box 68 Hadayek Shoubra, Cairo, 11241, Egypt.
Abstract
Nine Penicillium digitatum isolates were isolated from citrus fruits and tested for their pathogenicity on Navel orange fruit (Citrus sinensis L.). In this regard, the isolates exhibited three different levels of virulence. The isolates were identified morphologically using malt extract agar (MEA) and Czapek yeast extract agar (CYA) for colony characteristics, and MEA for microscopic features. Each one of the isolates has the unique features of P. digitatum, especially the largest conidia (6.1-11.9 µm long X 3.2-8 µm width), and phialides (10.1-21.4 µm long X 4-5.1 µm width). In addition, the isolates were identified on a molecular basis using ITS1 and ITS4 primers to confirm morphological identification. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that there was high variance among the isolates, and there were different relations between some of our isolates and other P. digitatum registered strains originating from different countries all over the world. The sequences were submitted to respective GenBank nucleotide databases with accession No. OR198852, OR198853, OR198854, OR198855, OR198856, OR198857, OR198858, OR198859 and OR198860. We also isolated a new P. digitatum (OB15: OR198859) strain with high virulence and rapid sporulation
Keywords
Penicillium digitatum; Green mould; ITS; Oranges


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