Morphological and Molecular Characterization of Rhizoctonia solani Isolates Causing Root Rot Disease of Chickpea.

Root rot disease is a significant issue affecting legume production in many countries. The infection of chickpea (Cicer arietinum) by the pathogen Rhizoctonia solani causes severe damage to plant growth. In this study, a survey was conducted at various sites in Duhok province throughout the 2024 growing season to identify the pathogen associated with chickpea root rot. Used four chickpea cultivars (Flip, Marrakesh, Sami, and Shuki-Diyar Baker) for screening susceptibility of cultivars in vivo and in vitro. The results depended on the estimation of seed germination percentage, seed inhibition percentage and disease severity. The RQ isolate demonstrated complete inhibition of seed germination (0.00%) with 100% inhibition in the pathogenicity test on the Sami cultivar. In addition, the highest disease severity was 88.4% when treated with the same isolate. For molecular identification, using ITS1 and ITS4 universal primers, the amount of DNA for three isolates of Rhizoctonia solani, viz., RQ (PQ897932), RSH (PQ897933) and RG1 (PQ897931), was compared for identity of rDNA sequence according to NCBI GenBank databases by BLAST mode, and the results showed the entire similarity ratio reached 100%.