See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/249437847

New report of Alternaria alternata causing leaf blight of tomato in Pakistan

Article  in  Plant Pathology · December 2004

DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-3059.2004.01099.x

CITATIONS READS

51 3,955

4 authors:

Khalid Akhtar Muhammad Yussouf Saleem

Nuclear Institute for Agriculture and Biology Nuclear Institute for Agriculture and Biology
127 PUBLICATIONS   1,662 CITATIONS    49 PUBLICATIONS   639 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

M. Asghar Mohammad Muhaimenul Haq

Nuclear Institute for Agriculture and Biology NorthSouth University
44 PUBLICATIONS   640 CITATIONS    88 PUBLICATIONS   1,677 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Improvement of lentil germplasm for high seed yield and disease resistance View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Khalid Akhtar on 21 February 2018.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 Plant Pathology (2004) 53, 816
NEW DISEASE REPORT
Blackwell Publishing, Ltd.
New report of Alternaria alternata causing leaf blight of
tomato in Pakistan
K. P. Akhtar*, M. Y. Saleem, M. Asghar and M. A. Haq
Nuclear Institute for Agriculture and Biology, Jhang Road, PO Box 128, Faisalabad, Pakistan
During February 2004 a leaf blight disease of tomato
(Lycopersicon esculentum) was observed in a tomato field
at the Nuclear Institute for Agriculture and Biology, Fais-
alabad, Pakistan. Symptoms on affected plants started
with yellowing and browning of the lower leaves, pro-
gressing upwards under high humidity conditions. Symp-
toms often developed from the leaf tips and along the
margins of the leaf petiole. Under severe infection, lesions
enlarged and coalesced, causing blighting of the leaves.
Concentric circles with dark layers of spores were
observed under moist conditions on blighted leaf por-
tions. Infection under favourable conditions was found to
cause severe defoliation, with considerable yield losses
when it occurred prior to flowering.
Isolations were made on potato dextrose agar medium
(PDA) from infected leaves collected from the field. The
fungus Alternaria alternata was consistently isolated and
identified based on morphological characters (Ellis, 1971;
Sultana, 1981; Shakir et al., 1997). The fungus grew
well on PDA and formed greyish-black colonies of about
90 mm in diameter in 7 days, when incubated at
25 ± 2°C. Conidia formed in long chains and were obcla-
vate and muriform, often with a short conical or cylindri-
cal, pale beak, less than one-third of the length of the
conidium. Conidia had three to seven transverse septa and
usually several longitudinal or oblique septa.
Pathogenicity tests were carried out in a screen house
on 8-week-old tomato plants of the cultivar Pakit. Test
plants were sprayed with a conidial suspension (5 × 104
conidia mL−1) of A. alternata isolated from diseased
*E-mail: kpervaiz_mbd@hotmail.com
Accepted 30 July 2004 at www.bspp.org.uk/ndr where figures
relating to this paper can be viewed
816
View publication stats
Doi: 10.1111/j.1365-3059.2004.01099.x
tomato leaves. Control plants were sprayed with sterilized
distilled water. All test plants were covered with polyethy-
lene bags for 2 days. Leaf blight symptoms similar to the
ones observed in the field started to develop after 4 days
and A. alternata was consistently reisolated from these
plants. Control plants did not develop leaf blight symptoms.
Alternaria alternata has previously been reported in
Pakistan as a saprophytic pathogen of tomato causing
postharvest losses at high frequency (Akhtar et al., 1994).
Among 35 isolates of A. alternata collected from rotted
fruits from fields and markets, only one isolate from the
field was able to produce leaf blight symptoms. This shows
that A. alternata causing leaf blight in the present study is
a distinct pathotype. This is believed to be the first report of
A. alternata causing leaf blight in tomato plants in Pakistan.
References
Akhtar KP, Matin M, Mirza JH, Shakir AS, Rafique M, 1994.
Some studies on the post harvest diseases of tomato fruits and
their chemical control. Pakistan Journal of Phytopathology 6,
125–9.
Ellis MB, 1971. Dematiaceous Hyphomycetes. Kew, UK:
Commonwealth Mycological Institute.
Shakir AS, Mirza JH, Akhtar KP, 1997. New records of
Alternaria species from Pakistan. Pakistan Journal of
Phytopathology 9, 102–4.
Sultana K, 1981. Cultural Studies of Hyphomycetes of Pakistan
from Different Habits. Punjab, Pakistan: University of
Punjab, MSc Thesis.
© 2004 BSPP