Screening of culture conditions for pathogens of potato dry rot

Dry rot is a severe fungal disease during potato storage. Fusarium spp. is the pathogen causing severe rot of potato tubers, producing Fusarium toxins and contaminating food. The disease leads to a huge loss to China's potato industry. The present research optimized and screened the culture conditions of the major pathogens causing potato dry rot including Fusarium culmorum, Fusarium avenaceum, Fusarium sambucinum, Fusarium solani var. coeruleum, Fusarium trichothecioides, and Fusarium sporotrioides. The results showed that F. sambucinum and F. culmorum were sensitive to temperature and pH. F. sambucinum, F. trichothecioides, F. Solani var. coeruleum, and F. sporotrioides are favorable to the glucose-based culture while F. culmorum and F. avenaceum were to sucrose-based culture. Illumination stimulated the growth of F. sambucinum and F. sporotrioides but inhibited the growth of F. culmorum and F. avenaceum. It is concluded that the culture conditions are different with species of Fusarium and the understanding of the culture conditions is expected useful in research and the disease control.