ISOLATION AND IDENTIFICATION OF FUNGI ASSOCIATED WITH FIELD PEA (PISUM SATIVUM LINN) IN NORTHERN GUINEA SAVANNA OF NIGERIA ISOLATION AND IDENTIFICATION OF FUNGI ASSOCIATED WITH FIELD PEA (PISUM SATIVUM LINN) IN NORTHERN GUINEA SAVANNA OF NIGERIA

Pisum sativum L. (field pea) is cultivated globally and valued for its protein- rich grain. The aim of the study is to identify fungi associated with field pea in Northern guinea savanna of Nigeria. Fungi were isolated through direct plating of diseased tissue. Morphological identification was done through colony texture, color, and its cultural characteristics on PDA. Size/shape of conidia and conidiophores. Molecular identification was carried out using Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) using universal primers ITS 1 and ITS4. The NCBI Blastx programed (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/BLAST) V. 4 analysis was used to identify the fungi.Alignments of nucleotide sequences were done using Bio Edit sequence alignment editor software. Phylogenetic relationships of fungal isolates were analyzed using MEGA V. 7.0 software. Pathogenecity tests were carried out on the fungal isolates. A total of six different fungal diseases were recorded which include; wilt caused by Fusarium solani, F. oxysporum and P. boydii, leaf spot caused by A. alternata and C. eragrotidis, Leaf blight and root rot caused by R. solani, Pod rot caused by T. terricolaand mold caused by Botrytis sp. other saprophytic fungi identified on field pea were Penicillium singorense, Trichoderma, Chrysosporium, Cheatophoma and Cheatomium spp. Rhizoctonia solani had the highest percentage occurrence of 55.3 % while Cheatomium had the least with 6.3%. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first record of causative fungi of wilt, root rot, leaf blight, leaf spot, pod rot and gray mold diseases on field pea in Northern guinea savanna of Nigeria.