THESIS & RESEARCHES
Survey of bacterial potato diseases in Algeria
Year:
2020
Author:
BANOUH Meriem
The documentation available on the phytosanitary status of potato bacterial diseases in Algeria is not consistent. We therefore conducted a round of surveys on potato bacterial diseases occurring in three Algerian regions (Algiers, Bouira, Ain-defla) in 2021. The dry weather this year allowed only a few symptomatic plants to be found in seven of the seventy-three plots inspected. One hundred and thirty-one catalase-positive bacterial isolates were obtained from 16 samples. These isolates all reacted positively to tobacco hypersensitivity test and nitrate reductase test. Other biochemical and biological (Gram stain, pathogenicity, oxidase, oxidative/fermentative, levan, indole and indigoidine) and molecular tests (PCR amplification using Y1/Y2 primers for detection of the genus Pectobacterium) were variable. The combination of all test results allowed us to assume the presence of three bacterial groups: Pectobacterium spp, Pectobacterium carotovorum subsp. carotovorum and Dickeya spp. This work was severely hampered by the laboratory closure and the lockdown following the COVID-19 emergency. Therefore, further characterisation (using specific primers) and a large-scale survey are needed to confirm the results and ascertain the general phytosanitary status of potato bacterial diseases in Algeria.
Supervisor:
Laala and F. Valentini
Collaboration:
CIHEAM