Eur J Plant Pathol (2019) 153:947–955
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10658-018-01612-y
Diversity and geographic distribution of fungal strains
infecting field-grown common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.)
in Tunisia
Yosra Sendi & Samir Ben Romdhane & Ridha Mhamdi &
Moncef Mrabet
Accepted: 1 October 2018 / Published online: 26 October 2018
# Koninklijke Nederlandse Planteziektenkundige Vereniging 2018
Abstract A collection of 103 fungal strains was
established from infected common bean plants
(Phaseolus vulgaris L.) field-grown in three geographic
regions from Tunisia and known for their long history in
bean culture; Boucharray, Chatt-Mariem, and Metline.
The fungal strain collection was established from common bean root and aerial parts. The pathogenicity test
carried out on germinated seedlings showed that among
the fungal collection, 41% of fungal strains were assigned
to be highly pathogenic. In fact, serious cases of seedling
damping-off, as well as a significant reduction in root and
shoot biomass in cv. Coco blanc were noticed (up to 90%
biomass reduction) considering fungal strains from the
three prospected localities. The identification of fungal
isolates belonging to this high pathogenicity class, based
on the internal transcribed spacer region (ITS), showed a
wide generic and specific diversity among common bean
pathogenic fungi in Tunisia. Fusarium spp. strains were
Y. Sendi
Faculty of Sciences of Tunis, University of Tunis El Manar, 2092
El Manar II, Tunis, Tunisia
e-mail: sendiyosra@gmail.com
Y. Sendi : S. B. Romdhane : R. Mhamdi : M. Mrabet (*)
Laboratory of Legumes, Centre of Biotechnology of Borj-Cédria
(CBBC), BP. 901, 2050 Hammam-Lif, Tunisia
e-mail: moncef_mrabet@yahoo.fr
S. B. Romdhane
e-mail: samir_benromdhane@yahoo.com
R. Mhamdi
e-mail: ridha.mhamdi@cbbc.rnrt.tn
dominant and represented 67% of the characterized fungal collection. Fungal genera including Alternaria
(22%), Rhizoctonia (4%), Ascomycota (4%),
Macrophomina (10%) and Phoma (4%) were also reported. The highest richness levels were found in the ChattMariem and Boucharray regions, showing the highest
generic and interspecific diversity. In this work, we revealed also a variability in the abundance and geographic
distribution of fungal species between the three
prospected regions. Fungal strains infecting common
bean in Metline were represented exclusively by Fusarium oxysporum. However, the genus Fusarium represented about 66% of fungal strains recovered from
Boucharray, and only 20% from Chatt-Mariem. The
genus Alternaria represented 11% and 40% of total
fungal isolates in Boucharray and Chatt-Mariem, respectively, and was isolated only from the foliar parts of
diseased common bean plants. The present work represents an important database that should be considered for
surveying common bean fungal diseases.
Keywords Common bean . Fungi . Pathogenicity .
Internal transcribed spacer . Diversity
Introduction
Grain legumes are among the most cultivated crops
since antiquity regarding their agronomic, economic
and food importance (Anne et al. 2013). This importance is mainly due to their ability to fix atmospheric
nitrogen following a symbiotic association with rhizobia
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(Andrews et al. 2011). Common bean (Phaseolus
vulgaris L.) has always attracted a much higher interest
because of its high nutritional and economic value
(Sarikamis et al. 2009). This grain legume is considered
a very valuable food source due to its potential proteins,
carbohydrates, dietary fibers, vitamins and minerals
content (Tharanathan and Mahadevamma 2003). However, its production is facing serious problems caused by
abiotic factors such as drought, soil salinization, high
temperature (Rainey and Griffiths 2005), and also by
biotic factors such as fungal, bacterial and viral diseases.
Throughout the world, plant diseases caused by phytopathogenic agents become increasingly severe leading
to enormous yearly agronomic losses (Seitz et al. 1982;
Alderman et al. 1996). In fact, it has been reported that
plant diseases could potentially deprive humanity of up
to 50% of the attainable yield for major crops and fungal
diseases are associated with the most severe damage
(Chakraborty and Newton 2011).
Phytopathogenic fungi are known for their great capacity to infect plants and adapt very quickly to environmental changes (McDonald and Linde 2002), reducing
considerably crop productivity and thereby causing significant economic losses (Prapagdee et al. 2008). Around
the world, common bean is mainly known for its
succeptibility to the fungal genera Fusarium, Pythium,
Rhizoctonia, Colletotrichum, Phoma, Phaeoisariopsis
and Uromyces which are associated with serious diseases
causing major damages on its production (Cruz et al.
2007; Clare et al. 2010; Estévez de Jensen et al. 2011).
In Tunisia, the common bean fungal diseases have
not been investigated previously despite the great damage that they cause on this grain legume and on yield
losses. Thereby, in order to investigate the common
bean fungal diseases in Tunisia, we aimed in the present
study to: (i) characterize the pathological traits of fungi
infecting common bean in three Tunisian localities;
Boucharray, Chatt-Mariem and Metline, (ii) identify
the isolated fungal strains by sequencing the ITS regions, and (iii) determine their geogpraphic distribution
across the three investigated regions.
Materials and methods
Plant material
Sampling of infected field-grown common bean plants
was carried out from three regions in Tunisia traditionally
Eur J Plant Pathol (2019) 153:947–955
known for the cultivation of this grain legume:
Boucharray (Cap Bon region, Northeast of Tunisia),
Chatt-Mariem (Sousse region, East centre of Tunisia)
and Metline (Bizerte region, North of Tunisia). The common bean plant samples were returned to the laboratory
for isolation of fungi.
Isolation of fungal strains
The fungi were isolated from the roots and leaves of
common bean plants showing fungal attack symptoms
(rot, necrosis, wilting, browning) as previously described
(Narayanasamy 2011). The infected tissus were cut in
2 mm2 fragments, and then superficially disinfected with
sodium hypochlorite solution (1%), abundantly washed
in sterile distilled water, and then deposited on potato
dextrose agar medium and incubated at 25 °C for mycelium growth according to the protocol of Benhamou et al.
(1997). The resulting mycelia were transferred to Petri
dishes containing potato dextrose-agar medium and then
purified by successive subculturing. In total, 103 fungal
isolates were obtained and maintained on PDA medium
at 4 °C for the next steps. The fungal strains were
transferred monthly to a new PDA medium.
Molecular identification of fungal isolates
DNA extraction
From a fresh fungal culture for each fungal isolate,
150 mg of mycelium was transferred into 300 μl TES
in an Eppendorf tube in the presence of sterile glass beads
and then vortexed for 2 min. To the mixture, 200 μl TES
buffer (100 mM TrisHCl, 10 mM EDTA, SDS 2%) and
proteinase K (1 mg / ml) were added to obtain a final
volume of 500 μl. The mixture was incubated for 30 min
at 65 °C on a water bath. A volume of 250 μl of 7.5 M
sodium acetate was added, followed by incubation of the
samples in ice for 10 min. After centrifugation for 15 min
at 13000 rpm, the supernatant was recovered in a new
sterile Eppendorf tube and 500 μl of ice-cold isopropanol
was added and then incubated overnight at −20 °C. Then,
a centrifugation step for 10 min at 13000 rpm was done.
The obtained supernatant was discarded and the DNA
pellet was rinsed with 800 μl of 70% cold ethanol and
centrifuged for 10 min at 20000 rpm to decant the DNA.
Finally, the supernatant was discarded and DNA samples
were kept to dry at room temperature. The DNA was then
Eur J Plant Pathol (2019) 153:947–955
taken up in 100 μl of TE buffer (10 mM TrisHCl, 1 mM
EDTA) and then stored at −20 °C for the next steps.
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Pathogenicity test
Pathogenicity test of fungi on bean plantlets
Amplification of ITS region and sequencing
The ITS (Internal Transcribed Spacer) region of ribosomal DNA was amplified using universal ITS1 (5’TCGGTAGGTGAACCTGCGG-3′) and ITS4 (5’TCCTCCGCTTATTGATATGC-3′) primers (White
et al. 1990). The amplification reaction was carried out
in a reaction volume of 25 μl containing 2.5 μl of 10 ×
reaction buffer, 1.5 μl of MgCl2 (25 mM), 2 μl of dNTP
(2.5 mM), 1 μl of each of the primers (10 μmoles), 0.2 μl
of Taq DNA polymerase (500 U/μl) and 14.80 μl of
sterile H2O milli-Q. Two microliters of DNA (50 ng /
μl) was added to each reaction mixture in a PCR
eppendorf tube. The amplification reaction was carried
out in a thermocycler. The performed PCR program was
composed of a pre-denaturation at 96 °C for 2 min
followed by 35 consecutive cycles of denaturation at
94 °C for 30 s, specific hybridization of the primers to
55 °C for 40 s and elongation step at 72 °C for 1 min.
Finally, a post elongation step at 72 °C for 10 min was
included in the PCR program.
Electrophoresis on agarose gel
Agarose gel (1%) was prepared in a TAE migration buffer.
A volume of 4 μl of the PCR sample was mixed with 1 μl
of loading buffer on a parafilm sheet. The samples and a
molecular weight marker (100 bp) were loaded separately
into the wells of the gel. The migration of the PCR
products was carried out for 20 min at 100 V. Then, the
gel was immersed in an ethidium bromide (BET) solution
(at 10 mg / l) for 15 min. Finally, the DNA bands were
visualized under UV and photographed using a BUV
Transilluminator^ UV imager (UVITEC, N ° = 092586).
Sequencing and identification of fungal strains
The ITS18S–28S regions were sequenced using primers
ITS1 and ITS4 on an ABI Genetic Analyzer (Applied
Biosystems, instrument Model 3130). The BLAST program (http://blast.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Blast.cgi) was used
to search for sequence similarities in the DNA
databases. Accession numbers of identified fungal
strains are given in Table 1.
The pathogenicity test was performed with the aim
to characterize the pathogenic behavior of fungal
isolates. This test estimated the degree of pathogenicity of different fungi according to the following
classes; 0 = non pathogenic, 1 = slightly pathogenic,
2 = Moderately pathogenic, and 3 = highly pathogenic. The seeds of common bean cv. Coco blanc
were used in this test. The common bean seeds
were surface disinfected with HgCl2 (0.2%) for
2 min, and then abundantly washed with sterile
distilled water and kept for imbibition step for
3 h. Then, the seeds were deposited on agar medium (0.9%) and incubated at 24 °C during 3 days
for the germination step. The fungal inoculants
was prepared by placing two fungal discs in
10 ml of the PDB (potato dextrose-broth) medium
and incubated for 24 h at 25 °C, shaking at
150 rpm, and then used for inoculation (1 ml) to
the radicle of each germinated seed which was
placed in 100-ml glass-tubes containing the inclined nutrient medium M (Bécard and
Fortin 1988). Glass-tubes were incubated in a
growth room under controlled conditions(25 °C,
photoperiod 16 h/8 h) for 21 days. The disease
symptoms were assessed at 21 days after fungal
treatment on the basis of shoot and root dry
weight measurements, and root rooting level using
a scoring method of four pathogenicity classes (0–
3), where 0 means no visible infection symptoms
and 3 corresponds to the most severe fungal attack
according to the scale published by Al-Hamdany
and Salih (1986).
Pathogenicity test on common bean seeds
The purpose of this test was to determine the effect of the
fungi on the germination capacity of common bean seeds.
Surface-disinfected common bean seeds were soaked and
then immersed in a fungal suspension- prepared as previously described and subsequently transferred to square
boxes containing 0.9% agar medium (nine seeds per
box) and incubated for 7 days in darkness at 25 °C.
Seven days after incubation, the percentage of the
germinated seeds in Petri square dishes was determined
with the objective to analyze the pathogenicity of each
950
Eur J Plant Pathol (2019) 153:947–955
Table 1 Close related species, isolation source from infected common bean plants, and accession numbers of fungal strains belonging to the
class 3 of pathogenicity (highly pathogens) in the three prospected regions; Boucharray, Chatt-Mariem, and Metline
Locality
Boucharray
Chatt-Mariem
Metline
Strain
Genus
The closest species
(Identity of 100%)
Isolation source from
common bean plants
Accession number
PVF2
Phoma
P. exigua
Roots
KU831491
PVF3
Fusarium
F. culmorum, F. cerealis, F. graminearum
Leaves
KU831492
PVF34
Fusarium
F. oxysporum
Roots
KU831523
PV8
Fusarium
F. oxysporum
Roots
KU831497
PVF22
Alternaria
A. gaisen, A. arborescens, A. alternata
Leaves
KU831511
PVF12
Alternaria
A. alternata, A. tenuissima, A. burnsii
Leaves
KU831501
PVF24
Fusarium
F. nygamai, Giberella moniliformia
Roots
KU831513
PVF18
Fusarium
F. oxysporum
Roots
KU831507
PVF29
Macrophomina
M. phaseolina
Roots
KU831518
PVF31
Fusarium
F. oxysporum
Roots
KU831520
PV36
Fusarium
F. oxysporum
Roots
KU831525
PVF38
Macrophomina
M. phaseolina
Roots
KU831527
PVF26
Fusarium
F. oxysporum
Leaves
KU831515
PVF39
Fusarium
F. oxysporum
Roots
KU831528
PVF41
Fusarium
F. oxysporum
Leaves
KU831530
PVF23
Fusarium
F. oxysporum
Roots
KU831512
PVF11
Macrophomina
M. phaseolina
Roots
KU831500
PVF9
Fusarium
F. oxysporum
Roots
KU831498
PVF1
Alternaria
A. tenuissima, A. alternata, A. burnsii
Leaves
KU831490
PVF32
Macrophomina
M. phaseolina
Roots
KU831521
PVF25
Alternaria
A. gaisen, A. arborescens, A. alternata
Leaves
KU831514
PVF42
Fusarium
F. falciforme
Roots
KU831531
PVF4
Alternaria
A. alternata, A. tenuissima, A. burnsii
Leaves
KU831493
PVF17
Ascomycota
Ascomycota sp.
Leaves
KU831506
PVF19
Rhizoctonia
R. solani
Roots
KU831508
PVF21
Alternaria
A. gaisen A. arborescens, A. alternata
Leaves
KU831510
PVF15
Macrophomina
M. phaseolina
Roots
KU831504
PVF37
Fusarium
F. oxysporum
Leaves
KU831526
PVF28
Fusarium
F. oxysporum
Leaves
KU831517
PVF30
Fusarium
F. tricinctum, F. avenacem
Leaves
KU831519
KU831522
PVF33
Fusarium
F. oxysporum
Leaves
PVF35
Fusarium
F. incarntum, F. chlamydosporum
Leaves
KU831524
PVF40
Fusarium
Fusarium sp.
Leaves
KU831529
PVF20
Fusarium
F. oxysporum
Leaves
KU831509
PVF6
Fusarium
F. chlamydosporum, F. incarntum
Roots
KU831495
PVF10
Fusarium
F. cereali, F. graminearum, F. culmorum
Leaves
KU831499
PVF14
Fusarium
F. oxysporum
Leaves
KU831503
PVF13
Fusarium
Fusarium sp.
Leaves
KU831502
PVF7
Fusarium
Fusarium sp.
Leaves
KU831496
PVF5
Fusarium
F. oxysporum
Roots
KU831494
PVF43
Fusarium
F. oxysporum
Roots
KU831532
PVF27
Fusarium
F. oxysporum
Roots
KU831516
Eur J Plant Pathol (2019) 153:947–955
fungal islolate on the capacity of common bean seed
germination, according to the formula:
Percentage of germinated seeds ¼
Number of germinated seeds
X100
Total number of seeds
Statistical analysis
Five replicates were considered for each parameter. Results were submitted to analysis of variance (ANOVA)
using the Statistica program. Mean comparison was
achived by the HSD test at 0.05 confidence threshold.
Results
Pathological characterization of fungal isolates
A total of 103 fungal isolates were recovered from roots
and shoots of common bean grown in three bioclimatic
regions of Tunisia; Boucharray, Chatt-Mariem, and
Metline. The degree of pathogenicity of the fungal isolates was determined on the basis both of their incidence
on plant growth and on the seed germination capacity of
common bean. Considering the whole tested fungal
collection, 24% of the fungal collection did not present
any effect on common bean biomass production, while
18% and 17% of the fungal collection showed slight or
moderate negative incidence of both analyzed parameters (Fig. 1). Moreover, 41% of the yet established
fungal collection were assigned to the class 3 of pathogenicity to common bean since they caused more than
50% of SDW and RDW reduction, and in some cases
Fig. 1 Percentage of each class
of pathogenicity on common bean
plants grown on glass tubes
among the whole fungal
collection established from the
three propected sites (Boucharray,
Chatt-Mariem, Metline). The
classes of pathogenicity are: 0:
non pathogens (24%); 1: slightly
pathogens (18%); 2: moderately
pathogens (17%); 3: highly
pathogens (41%)
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complete plant death (Figs 1 and 2). In fact, from the
Boucharray locality, fungal strains PVF8, PVF2,
PVF11, PVF38, PVF31, PVF23, PVF12 and PVF3
reduced common bean SDW by 48 to 80% and RDW
by 37% to 90% compared to the control. Similarly,
fungal strains collected from Chatt-Mariem PVF25,
PVF1, PVF4, PVF37, PVF19 and PVF32 reduced common bean SDW by 79–93% and RDW by 60–92%.
Likewise, fungal strains from Metline; PVF14, PVF20,
PVF33, PVF13, PVF10, PVF43, and PVF6 reduced
common bean SDW by 77–93% and RDW by 74–
85%. However, some fungal strains collected from the
three localities resulted in complete common bean death
and reduced growth and biomass production by 100%
as shown in Fig. 2. This was in the case of fungal strains
PVF34, PVF18, PVF39, PVF9, PVF36, PVF29,
PVF22, PVF26, PVF41 (from Boucharray), PVF21,
PVF17, PVF15, PVF42 (from Chatt-Mariem), and
PVF40, PVF35, PVF28, PVF30, PVF7, PVF5, and
PVF27 (from Metline). In a second test investigating
the effect of fungal pathogenicity class 3 on seed germination capacity, almost all of the fungal strains
completely inhibited seed germination and caused severe common bean seeds damping-off.
Molecular identification of pathogenic fungal strains
Molecular identification of fungal isolates belonging to
the pathogenicity class 3 was carried out on the basis on
ITS region sequence. Six genera and 20 different species
of fungal strains infecting common bean in Tunisia were
revealed (Table 1). Among this pathogenicity class and
considering the three localities, the dominant fungal genera were Fusarium (67%), Alternaria (15%), followed by
24%
41%
18%
17%
0
1
2
3
952
Eur J Plant Pathol (2019) 153:947–955
Fig. 2 Fungal strains -collected
from each region- belonging to
the pathogenicity class 3 (highly
pathogens) and their effects on
common bean shoot (SDW) and
root (RDW) dry weights of plants
grown on glass tubes. PVF corresponds to fungal strain. A control
treatment was included. In total, 5
repetitions were considered for
each treatment
the genera Macrophomina (12%), Phoma (2%), Rhizoctonia (2%) and Ascomycota (2%) (Table 1). Higher richness levels were found at Boucharray and Chatt-Mariem
localities compared to the Metline region (Fig. 3). Fusarium was the most predominant genus in Metline (100%)
and Boucharray (66%), and included 20% of isolates in
Eur J Plant Pathol (2019) 153:947–955
Fig. 3 Map of Tunisia indicating
the distribution of the identified
common bean pathogenic fungal
genera in the three prospected
localities; Boucharray (Cap Bon),
Metline (Bizerte), Chatt-Mariem
(Sousse). The values between
brackets represent the relative
abundance of each fungal genus
in each locality
953
Boucharray (Cap Bon: upper semiarid stage)
Fusarium (66%)
Alternaria (11%)
Macrophomina (17%)
Phoma (6%)
Metline (Bizerte : Humid stage)
Fusarium (100%)
North
Chatt-Mariem(Sousse: lower
semi-arid stage)
Fusarium (20%)
Alternaria (40 %)
Ascomycota (10%)
Macrophomina (10%)
Rhizoctonia (10%)
East
West
South
Chatt-Mariem and was recovered both from foliar and
roots parts of infected common bean plants. However, the
genus Alternaria was detected only in the foliar parts of
the infected plants in Boucharray (11%) and ChattMariem (40%). The genus Macrophomina was only
isolated from infected roots in Boucharray (17%) and
Chatt-Mariem (20%).
Discussion
The pathogenicity testing of fungal strains was carried
out in order to characterize a collection of fungi associated with root and foliar parts of field-grown common
bean plants. The results of this test showed the existence
of variable degrees of pathogenicity among the isolated
fungi. Some isolates completely inhibited the growth of
common bean seedlings, while others caused delays in
plant growth and affected the dry weight of the aerial and
root parts of inoculated plants. These results are
consistent with those of Balmas et al. (2000) and Cruz
et al. (2007) who underlined the severe damage caused
by common bean fungal pathogens on seed germination
capacity and plant growth. Molecular identification based
on the ITS region was performed to identify highly
pathogenic fungal isolates (class 3). Molecular identification of the most pathogenic fungal isolates showed a
great diversity in the analyzed collection. More than 20
species were identified, most of them have already been
reported as causal agents of common bean diseases all
over the world. These species belong to the genera Fusarium, Rhizoctonia, Alternaria, Macrophomina, Phoma,
and Ascomycota (Estévez de Jensen et al. 2011; Vanegas
et al. 2014; Naseri and Mousavi 2015).
In this study, highly pathogenic Fusarium strains
were found among fungi infesting common bean in
Boucharray, Chatt-Mariem, and Metline regions, and
represented the dominant fungal genus recovered from
infected plants. Among the species of this genus,
F. oxysporum, F. nygamai, F. sickle, F. avenacem, and
F. incarnatum were reported. This finding is consistent
with reports underlying Fusarium pathogenicity on
common bean crops (Clare et al. 2010). The abundance
of F. oxysporum among local fungal isolates was apparent compared to other Fusarium species. This finding
corroborates the observations of Montiel et al. (2005)
which showed that F. oxysporum comprised 39% of the
Fusarium strains recovered from infected common bean
plants. This species had been described also by de VegaBartol et al. (2011) as a typical fungal pathogen limiting
the production of beans worldwide. F. nygamai, a highly
pathogenic species identified in this work, is also known
for its pathogenicity on common bean and especially for
its negative impact on stem height growth (Balmas et al.
2000). Infection with this species is characterized
by the appearance of browning symptoms (Balmas
954
et al. 2000). Some Fusarium species identified in
this study are reported for the first time as common bean fungal pathogens (i.e. F. cerealis,
F. graminearum).
Moreover, among the most pathogenic fungi identified in this study are Alternaria species such as A. gaisen
(PVF22), A. alternata (PVF12), A. tenuissima (PVF1)
and A. burnsii (PVF4). Common bean attacks by this
genus had been reported previously in a similar study
conducted in Colombia (Vanegas et al. 2014). The pathogenicity of Alternaria species had been also demonstrated on other plant species such as on Morinda
citrifolia (Hubballi et al. 2010; Mouden et al. 2013).
However, A. gaisen and A. burnsii, which showed severe damage on plant growth and seed germination
capacity, are reported for the first time on common bean
plants in this study. Macrophomina phaseolina was
recorded as a pathogenic fungus on common bean plants
in Boucharray and Chatt-Mariem. Gupta et al. (2015)
showed that Macrophomina phaseolina is responsible
for anthrax rot disease in beans and several other grain
legumes such as soybeans and peas. In this work, this
species was isolated only from the roots of the infected
common bean plants. However, the pathogenicity test
results showed that this species has a pathogenic effect
on both the aerial and root parts of the plant, suggesting
that this fungus is a vascular pathogen causing impaired
circulation of water. Nora et al. (2014) showed that the
colonization of root xylem by M. phaseolina caused
vessel obstruction and blocked transport of water to
the aerial parts of the plant. Phoma exigua (strain
PVF2) was isolated only from infested common bean
plants grown in Boucharray region. This fungal species
had resulted in a significant reduction of plant shoot and
root growth. It has been reported in the literature that this
fungal species is responsible for leaf spot disease in
beans and to be associated to significant damages on
plant growth (Estévez de Jensen et al. 2011). Moreover,
we revealed here that Rhizoctonia solani (PVF12) was
highly pathogenic on common bean plants, leading to a
decrease in plant growth and an intense root rot. These
results are in agreement with those of El-Mohamedy and
AbdAlla (2013) who pointed out that common bean
attacks by R. solani at the root level are associated to
seedling damping-off and root rot. Ascomycota strain
PVF17 was found to be very aggressive. It totally
inhibited common bean growth, and even caused seed
damping-off, thus confirming the results reported by
Gutierrez et al. (2014).
Eur J Plant Pathol (2019) 153:947–955
Regarding the diversity of phytopathogenic fungi
across the three surveyed sites, it was noteworthy that
the Boucharray and Chatt-Mariem localities were colonized by a more diverse phytopathogenic fungal community when compared to Metline site. This difference
in the fungal community between localities can be explained by the variability of climatic conditions such as
temperature and humidity that influence the propagation
and survival of pathogens (Beadle et al. 2003; Luck
et al. 2011).
Conclusion
We have highlighted the great diversity of fungal strains
associated with field-grown common bean plants in Tunisian soils. The more dominant phytopathogenic fungi
belong to Fusarium, Alternaria, and Macrophomina genera. The colonization of common bean plants by some
fungal strains was associated with severe damage to
health status, survival and growth of common bean
plants. This survey should be taken into account in
developing strategies aiming at reducing fungal diseases
incidence on this important grain legume.
Acknowledgements This work was supported by the Ministry
of Higher Education and Scientific Research of Tunisia under
Grant 2015-2018 BImprovement of Legume Production^for the
Laboratory of Legumes, Centre of Biotechnology of Borj-Cédria.
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