Morphological and Molecular Identification Study of Rose and Lantana Fungal Leaf Spot Pathogens

Abstract

The fungi were isolated from diseased leaves of ornamental plants such as Rosa hybrid and Lantana camara. All symptomatic leaves with leaf spot infections were collected and transported to the lab for morphological and molecular diagnosis. The isolation findings revealed that each fungus, Alternaria alternata, Fusarium chlamydosporum, and Botrytis cinerea, was isolated from each studied plant. The genetic study revealed the identities of each fungus as follows: a 100% identity for both A. alternata and B. cinerea, and a proportion of 99.60% similarity with F. chlamydosporum. The pathogenicity test results revealed that the fungus A. alternata had the highest level of pathogenicity in terms of disease percentage and disease severity, which were 83.34 and 64.50% on the rose plant, respectively, and 83.34 and 66.25% on the lantana plant, respectively; followed by B. cinerea with 66.67 and 41.50% on the rose plant, respectively, and F. chlamydosporum with 50 and 31.25% on the rose plant The current study suggests looking for acceptable and effective therapies to prevent the spread of certain forms of fungus.