First report of Leptosphaeria maculans and Leptosphaeria biglobosa causing blackleg disease of oilseed rape in Tunisia

Abstract

Blackleg has been observed in oilseed rape in Tunisia since 2017. Morphological observations, pathogenicity tests, and sequencing of the internal transcribed spacer regions for four fungal isolates from affected plants confirmed the presence of Leptosphaeria maculans and Leptosphaeria biglobosa. These results provide the first record of L. maculans and L. biglobosa as causes of blackleg of oilseed rape in Tunisia.