Morphological and Molecular Diagnosis the Fungus Species of Tilletia spp That Infect Wheat in Some Provinces of Iraq

Abstract

Abstract This study was carried out in the Plant Protection Department - College of Agriculture - Anbar University for the agricultural season 2022. The study included the collection of infected samples from fields, stores and grain silos from some provinces of Iraq (Baghdad, Anbar, Salah ad-Din, Nineveh). The resulted showed spread of covered smut disease in wheat in all collection areas. The results of the morphology and molecular diagnosis showed the presence of the following species : Tilletia caries (synonymous T. tritici) which coincided with global isolation (MH855829.1 and MN633361.1) with a match rate of (99.69 and 98.42) respectively, T. controversa (synonymous T. brevifaciens) which coincided with global isolation (OL653703.1 and EU257561.1) with a match rate of (92.41 and 88.15) respectively and T. indica which coincided with global isolation (MT498030.1 and MT498030.1) with a match rate of (92.64 and 91.41) respectively . The results of culturing teliospores were shown that isolate the fungus Tilletia spp. (Salah AL-Din – Makisheva) It achieved the highest germination rate reached more than 50% compared to the other examined isolates, whose germination rates varied.