Foot ROT is one of the contagious diseases of sheep and goats. The causal agent is Dichelobacter nodosus. The subject of this study was to prepare a multivalent Dichelobacter nodosus vaccine against foot ROT in Iran. The experimental prepared vaccine consisted of tripticase peptone. pROTease peptone, Lab - lemco, yeast extract, L.argenine and glucose. the quality control of the vaccine was tested in sheep for safety and efficiency. The results of quality control of experimental vaccine were quite satisfactory in injected animals. The method of preparation and quality control of vaccine is described in this paper.

Watermelon (Citnd/us LanaJus) cv. Charleston Gray is one of the most important cultivars grown in Iran. It has some good quantitative and qualitative characteristics but unfortunately is sensitive to Blossom End ROT. To solve this problem, this experiment was conducted in a factorial manner in randomized complete block design with four replications in Research Station and Laboratories of Department of Horticulture, College of Agriculture, the University of Tehran, during 1997 & 1998. In this experiment, black polyethylene mulch was used and calcium nitrate was foliar sprayed at concentrations of 0,4, and 6 g/L.Results indicated that mulch could increase yield by 85% over two years due to weed growth suppression and conserving soil moisture for a longer time. Foliage fresh weight, number and average weight of fruits per plant and precocity were also significantly affected by black polyethylene mulch. Furthermore, mulch reduced the number and weight of fruits affected by Blossom End ROT by about 13% and 12.5% (average of two years), respectively. Calcium nitrate addition during both years had no significant effect on the measured fruit characteristics nor on Blossom End ROT.

Khezri, M., Karimi Shahri, M. R., & Ghasemi, A. (2023). Bacterial ROT disease of saffron corm and leaf. Plant Pathology Science, 12(1), 74-83.         Saffron is one of the valuable agricultural products and its dried stigma is used as medicine and is known as a precious spice. Infection of the plant's reproductive organs plays an important role in the spread of pathogens. The saffron is reproduced via corms, and using healthy and pathogen-free corms is the best and most effective strategy to prevent the spread of soil-borne pathogens in new areas and fields. Saffron corm ROT disease is caused by some fungal and bacterial pathogens. Burkholderia gladioli pv. gladioli is the causal agent of saffron leaf and corm ROT disease. The bacterium survives in the soil for a long time, and it is transmitted through the infected soil, farming tools, and corms. In recent years, this disease has been reported from Khorasan Razavi province. In this article, along with introducing the bacterial disease of saffron leaves and corms ROTting, strategies to prevent the occurrence and spread of the disease have been presented.

Charcoal ROT caused by Macrophomina phaseolina is one of the most prevalent and destructive disease of soybean in Mazandaran and Golestan provinces. During 1991-2003, soybean fields of Eastern Mazandaran were surveyed and collected samples showed signs on the stems and roots. The suspected samples were cultured on PDA medium. All of the isolated colonies were identified as Macrophomina phaseolina. The pathogen city tests were carried out under greenhouse conditions, using artificially infested soil by the fungus propagules (scleROTia) and the fungus was pathogenic on soybean. Various isolates of soybean, sunflower, and sesame had different growth, colour, size, and number of scleROTia on PDA medium. Reaction of the cultivars and advanced lines of soybean were evaluated by fungus infection under field conditions. The results showed that Gorgan3 cultivar and J.K-695 and B.P-692 lines had minimum infection. The infection rates of the disease were 50-60% in Goibar, and less than 10% in Amol regions. Average numbers of the fungus scleROTia were rated equal to 32 in Goibar, and 14 in Ghaemshar regions.

ScleROTinia stem ROT (SSR), caused by ScleROTinia scleROTiorum, is the most important disease of canola (Brassica napus). This disease has been observed in different regions of Golestan province since the first years of canola planting. In order to study of infection situation of the fields in the province, disease evaluating was carried out in 80 fields in four locations (Gorgan, Ali Abad, Kalaleh and Gonbad) during 2006 and 2007. Statistical analyses of disease data were performed based on disease incidence (I) and mean severity (S) of the fields. The results revealed that the incidence (P=0.05) and severity (P=0.02) are significantly different in the four locations. Minimum and maximum of average incidence was observed in Kalaleh (10.7%) and AliAbad (22.11%), respectively, but Minimum and maximum of mean severity was recorded in Gonbad (5.6%) and Ali Abad (17.2%), respectively. Minimum and maximum of disease incidence was observed in Gorgan in 2006 (1%) and Ali Abad in 2006 (81.5%), respectively, that were equivalent to 0.6% and 66.75% disease severity.

Twenty-five soybean cultivars from different maturity groups were evaluated in artificial infection conditions with two isolates of Tiallosporella phaseolina, in a factorial experiment on the basis of RCBD with two replications in greenhouse, to determine their reactions to the above pathogenic fungus. In order to establish infection in soybean cultivars, autoclaved soil (10 min, 121) was contaminated with inoculums propagated on 50 ml corn meal and sand medium in a 250ml flask. The mixture of sand and corn meal was autoclaved for two successive days and then inoculated with 4-5 agar plugs of the 4 day-old fungus grown on PDA (potato-dextrose agar) at 30oC. Ten gr of inoculums was mixed thoroughly with the soil in each pot. Each soybean cultivar was six times planted in six pots, five seeds in each pot. Two pots were contaminated with isolate I and the other two with isolate II, while the last two pots being used as control (without any contamination). MicroscleROTial propagules in lower stem and taproot tissues at growth stage R7 were used to determine infection percentage in cultivars. Analysis of variance showed that there were significant differences among cultivars as to the disease. Some cultivars were susceptible, while some being moderately resistant to T.phaseolina. Based on Duncan's multiple mean comparison test, cultivars NE 3297, Gorgan 3, M58, and Calhoan suffered the highest, while cultivars L93-3258, Macon, Probest and Salin the lowest infection percentage. Cluster analysis, performed on cultivars for infection percentage, placed cultivar NE3297 in a separate cluster.

Introduction: Saffron (Crocus sativus L. ) a perennial herbaceous is one of the most important crops. It is a valuable ketchup and its demand for consumption has been increased due to many medicinal and pharmacological applications. Saffron is a male sterile and can be propagated only by its corm and produces daughter corms. Cultivation of saffron is challenged by biotic stresses and corm ROT as a biotic stress, is one of the most destructive diseases subterranean organs. Because of the insufficient information about corm ROT etiology, investigation and identification of harmful agents is essential. Different pathogens such as fungi affect growth of corm and identification of these fungi is critical in cultivation of saffron. Occurrence of saffron corm ROT has been reported from many countries and various microorganisms such as Fusarium, Rhizoctonia, ScleROTinia, Penicillium, Aspergillus, Bacillus and Burkhulderia have been isolated from ROTted corm of saffron. The present study was conducted to identify fungi associated with corm of saffron in Khorramabad. Materials and Methods: Infected corms of saffron were randomly collected from different regions of Khorramabad in Lorestan province (10 regions). The infected tissues were surface-sterilized with sodium hypochlorite (5%) for 1 min, and washed three times by sterile distilled water, dried on sterile filter paper and directly placed on the surface of potato dextrose agar medium. The PDA plates were incubated for 7 days at 25±2°C and then were purified using single spore method. Morpho-cultural characteristics of fungi were studied on carnation leaf agar and potato carROT agar media. Microscopic measurement and images of reproductive structures were carried out under a Nikon microscope. Pathogenicity test was conducted to evaluate the ability of isolates to colonize saffron corms. Conidial suspension was prepared from cultured isolates on potato dextrose bROTh medium and adjusted at a concentration of 1×106 conidia/ml. To inoculation, saffron corms were submerged in the conidial suspension, then planted in an aseptic soil and maintained for 4 weeks under controlled conditions in a greenhouse with 23 ± 2°C and 70% relative humidity. The disease incidence and severity was inspected daily and finally Koch’s postulates were tested. Results and Discussion: Totally, 58 isolates were collected and four species including of Alternaria alternata, Fusarium solani, F. acuminatum and F. oxysporum were isolated and identified on the basis of morphological characteristics. The A. alternate (25 isolates) and F. acuminatum (4 isolates) were the most and the least frequent respectively. According to the pathogenic test under the controlled conditions, F. oxysporum was the most aggressive and A. alternate was weakly pathogenic. There was not previous report of incidence of F. acuminatum and F. solani on saffron corm from the world and Iran respectively. The results of this research are in agreement with previous studies that showed corm ROT is a major challenge in saffron cultivation. Corm ROT is a complex disease and frequency, diversity and distribution of pathogens may be different due to cultivar type, agricultural practices, and climatological parameters. However, Fusarium spp. are the main agent of corm ROT and F. oxysporum is the most predominant in saffron growing areas of the world. Moreover, Fusarium spp. have been reported as serious pathogen of subterranean organs of many crops such as potato, rice, wheat, and barley. Conclusion: The results of this study showed that corm ROT is a serious constraint in saffron production. Although A. alternata was the most frequent species in ROTted corms, Fusarium spp. especially F. oxysporum were more aggressive and virulent on saffron. In addition, isolating saprophytic fungi such as Aspergillus, Penicillium and Rhizopus in our research showed that saffron corm is potentially exposed to infectious by varous fungi. Etiology of saffron corm ROT is essential and results of this study can be helpful in management of saffron cultivation.