| Abstrakt: |
The southern regions of Tanzania are defenseless to food insecurity, the collapse of the forest industry and poverty due to the failure of the main cash crop caused by a pathogenic mushroom, Piptoporellus baudonii. This macrofungus leads to the wilting of cashew trees and cassava, which are the main cash crop and staple food respectively, in the region. To confirm the pathogenicity of P. baudonii,we employed Koch’s postulates. First, the fungal culture was isolated from P. baudoniibasidiocarp and then inoculated into susceptible plant species including cashew trees (Anacardium occidentale) and eucalyptus (Eucalyptus tereticornis), under controlled environments. Direct inoculation of the fungal culture was done on both damaged and undamaged plants. Initially, the inoculated plants grew normally for the first 2 months, but later symptoms of abnormal growth started manifesting. These symptoms included leaf chlorosis, gum with different colors; and wilting. To confirm the presence of P. baudoniiin the wilting plants and ascertain its identity, DNA obtained from the fungal fruiting body was sequenced and compared with the DNA sequence of the fungi isolated from infected plants. The compared sequences showed a sequence identity of 99.67% for Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) and 99.79% for Large Subunit (LSU), confirming that they are of the same species. This study revealed that P. baudoniiis pathogenic to different plant hosts, specifically cashew and eucalyptus trees. Immediate mitigation measures are required to avoid further losses to farmers and safeguard forests. |
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