Biological Control of Water Hyacinth, Eichhornia crassipes Using Associated Fungi

El-Shandah, A.N., A.A. Hasan and S.Z. Bakr. 2024. Biological Control of Water Hyacinth, Eichhornia crassipes Using Associated Fungi. Arab Journal of Plant Protection, 42(4): 534-540. https://doi.org/10.22268/AJPP-001264 The fungi associated with water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) were isolated and identified from different regions on the Tigris River, including; Samarra, Al Dhuluiya, Al Mutasim and Al Shirqat within Salaheddine province. The pathogenic fungal isolates of water hyacinth were molecularly identified, using nucleotide sequence analysis of 5.8S rRNA gene as: Umbelopsis isabellina strain Has.AA-30, Umbelopsis isabellina strain Has.AA-31, Alternaria alternata strain Has.AA-32, Alternaria eichhorniae strain Has.AA-33 and Alternaria tenuissima strain Has.AA-34. The highly pathogenic five fungal isolates were deposited in GenBank under the accession numbers OP251452.1, OP251368.1, OP251367.1, OP251453.1 and OP251365.1, respectively. The results obtained showed the presence of 11 fungal isolates with pathogenic effect on the Nile flower weed, with a significant superiority of the spore suspension and filtrate of the isolate Has.AA-33 that showed highest infection severity of 80.7%, followed by the isolates Has.AA-30, Has.AA-31, Has.AA-31, Has.AA-32 and Has.AA-34, whereas no infection was recorded in the control treatment. Keywords: Water hyacinth, Tigris River, Eichhornia crassipes, pathogenic fungi, biological control, molecular identification.