CHARACTERIZATION OF FUSARIUM SPECIES ASSOCIATED WITH MANGO MALFORMATION DISEASE IN SOUTHERN SENEGAL

In Senegal mango production has long existed in traditional forms, especially in the south and center of the country. It accounts for 60% of the countrys fruit production, with an estimated annual output of 150,000 tons. Despite a positive balance sheet in recent years, mango orchardsareaffected by numerous phytosanitary constraints like diseases and insect pests. Among the diseases, mango malformation is considered one of the most deadly for the mango tree. Since its discovery in 2009 in the south of Senegal, the disease has continued to spread in this area with incursions towards the northern part of the country. Few studies were dedicated to that pathogen in the Senegalese context. This study was carried out to help bring more light in the identity of the pathogen(s) causing this disease. Therefore 13 isolates of Fusarium isolates obtainedfrom mango malformation tissueswere characterized using morphological criteria and the molecular analysis. The 5.8S rDNA region of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) was amplifiedusing ITS1 and ITS4 primer pairs. Sequence analysis and other analytical studiesshowed that the malformation of mango tree in southern Senegal is relatedto a diversity of Fusarium species. The morphological and molecular analysisallowed to identify several Fusarium strains with a very high degree of similarity (99.08 to 99.82%) with the species in the NCBI database ranged.