Vol. 11, Issue 10 (2022)

Author(s):
Saima Farooq, RR Jat, Misba Majeed, Sajad Un Nabi, Devanshi Pandit, Sheikh Saima Khushboo, Roohi Jan, Poonam Choudhary and Manoj K Yadav

Abstract:
Early blight is one of the most damaging diseases in terms of both qualitatively and quantitatively in tomato producing areas worldwide. The disease was earlier reported to be incited by Alternaria solani, but several studies have shown that the disease is caused by several species of Alternaria. The present study was conducted to decode the species associated with early blight of tomato, samples showing blight appearance were collected from four districts of Jammu region and characterized through cultural and morphological characters. Based on cultural and morphological characteristics, the species was identified as Alternaria alternata, however, very little variation existed among the isolates. The species was further confirmed molecularly using universal internal transcribed spacer primer pairs. The pathogen showed 99% sequence similarity with Alternaria alternata and clustered in same clad in phylogenetic tree along with other Alternaria alternata isolates. The study clearly indicated the association of Alternaria alternata, in addition to Alternaria solani as the causal agent of early blight in tomato; the future prospects lies in collection of more number of isolates and using multigene approach for characterizing the species spectrum associated with early blight of tomato.