Characterization and Identification of Chickpea Wilt/Root Rot Pathogens in North Shoa, Ethiopia

Chickpea wilt/root rot is the main biotic stress that reduces yields of chickpea in the major chickpea growing areas of Ethiopia. This study was carried out to isolate, characterize, and identify fungal pathogens that cause chickpea wilt/root rot and enrich the microbial culture collection of Ethiopian Biodiversity Gene Bank and make them accessible for further research. Root samples were collected from infected chickpea host plants grown in three districts of North Shoa. The root samples were sterilized with two steps surface sterilization and inoculated on Potato Dextrose Agar. The fungal pathogens were isolated from the inoculated Potato Dextrose Agar after seven to ten days of incubation at 26+2 OC. The fungal pathogens were characterized using cultural characteristics and microscopic morphology techniques. Data comprising the symptoms of the infected host chickpea plants at the farm land, the cultural characteristics of the fungi on Potato Dextrose Agar, microscopic morphologies and standard fungal identification key were used to identify the fungal species. The identified fungal pathogens include Fusarium oxysporum, Fusarium solani, Rhizoctonia bataticola, and Rhizoctonia solani. The rate of isolation of the pathogens is 20% for the three pathogens each; Fusarium oxysporum, Fusarium solani, Rhizoctonia bataticola and 10% to Rhizoctonia solani. Most of the pathogens are isolated from samples collected from Moretina Jiru district which indicates the existence of higher distribution of the disease in this district than the other two districts included in the study.