Author(s)

Wendolian Romain Soalla^1,2*, Pawindé Elisabeth Zida¹, Bouma James Neya¹, Kadidia Koita²

¹Laboratoire de Phytopathologie, Institut de l’Environnement et de Recherches Agricoles (INERA), Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
²Laboratoire Biosciences, Université Joseph Ki-ZERBO, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

Sesame is Burkina Faso’s second essential agricultural export after cotton. It’s consequently a supply of income for producers and foreign exchange for the country. However, sesame production is characterized by low average yields of about 538 kg·ha^-1 at the farmer’s field as compared to the potential yield of the improved varieties (1500 - 2000 kg·ha^-1). Fungal diseases are some of the major constraints to sesame production in Burkina Faso. The present study contributes to the development of means to control pathogenic fungi of this crop, which are responsible for significant losses. The objective is to identify the fungi associated with diseased sesame plant samples. To this end, 149 samples of diseased sesame plants were collected from different production sites located in three agro-climatic zones of the country. The analysis of the samples according to the blotting paper method, based on the morphological characteristics of the fungi, allowed the identification of 18 genera with prevalence rates from 2.68% to 97.98%. The most frequently identified genera were Macrophomina (97.98%), Cercospora (86.57%), Fusarium (85.23%), Phoma (62.41%) and Colletotrichum (61.07%). The results also showed a variable distribution of fungi according to the agro-climatic zone with the predominance of Macrophomina in all three zones. Molecular identification by DNA sequencing of 120 isolates belonging to the different fungi detected allowed the identification of 25 species of which the most representative were Macrophomina phaseolina, Cercospora sesami, Corynespora cassiicola, Alternaria simsimi, Alternaria porri, Fusarium oxysporum, F. fujikuroi, F. equiseti, Colletotrichum capsici, and C. gloesporiodes. The present study showed that diseased sesame plants collected from different production sites in Burkina Faso housed several species of fungi. The fungi presence in diseased plants indicates the need to inform and raise the stakeholders’ awareness about the phytosanitary problems of sesame, but also to develop effective and appropriate control methods against these crop pathogens in Burkina Faso.

Burkina Faso, Fungi, Molecular Identification, Morphological Identification, Sesame

Soalla, W. , Zida, P. , Neya, B. and Koita, K. (2023) Morphological and Molecular Identification of Fungi Associated with Sesame Diseased Plants of the Three Agroclimatic Zones of Burkina Faso. American Journal of Plant Sciences, 14, 290-307. doi: 10.4236/ajps.2023.143020.